Every week we’ll be providing a brief update on the latest Google product and feature updates relevant to our agency partners. To see past updates, look for the “This Week in Product Updates” label.

October - a time for changing leaves, and changing temperatures...followed closely by colds and flu. If you need a flu shot, use Google’s flu onebox to find health tips from the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as nearby locations to get the vaccine.

To keep your clients’ accounts healthy, see our new and updated landing page guidelines, a back-to-basics blog post on search marketing, and the update on Ad Sitelinks for Mobile Ads.

Tip of the week:

• Have questions on landing page quality? Be sure to visit the Help Center for new and updated landing page and site policy guidelines.

Search:

• Google Media Solutions Series: Part 1, Back-to-Basics with Google AdWords and Search Marketing: Over the next four weeks, we will be sharing tips and tricks for positioning Google products to your clients in the "Google Media Solutions Series", starting with Google’s search marketing product, Google AdWords. Visit the agency blog for the scoop on common AdWords myths.

Display:

• Upcoming remarketing webinar for agencies: Wednesday, October 27th 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST. This webinar will provide an overview of remarketing with Google, implementation and optimization best practices, and case studies. Register here
• The Creative Process -- Illustrated on YouTube: YouTube Show & Tell, the home for the best creative marketing examples on YouTube, recently interviewed the creative minds behind Old Spice, Dynomighty, and Axe to give you a peek into the creative process behind campaigns that have earned millions of video views. Visit the YouTube Blog for the complete interviews.
  

Mobile:

• Mobile Ads + Sitelinks = Love: We are excited to announce that Mobile Ads are now eligible to show Sitelinks. Clients whose campaigns are opted in to show on "iPhone and other mobile devices" and whose ads have strong quality scores can take advantage of this new mobile ad format. For a one-two punch, use both Ad Sitelinks and Phone Extensions together. If both are enabled, when your ad appears on mobile devices a single Sitelink will appear along with a phone number. See the complete update on the Mobile Ads Blog.

TV ads:

• Fall line-up for Google TV Ads. Episode 3: Efficient Reach: For the next 4 weeks, the TV ads team will be sharing tips and resources on AgencyLand and in the Agency Weekly Update. In this week's episode: With 95+ channels from DISH Network, direct partnerships with 9 National Cable Networks, and upcoming inventory from DirecTV, Google TV Ads reaches up to 55 million homes. Audience targeting tools can help you identify where your target demographic is watching TV, while our in-depth reporting tools show how well your ads performed against your target audience. See how Google TV Ads delivered Coldwell Banker 150M viewers at extremely efficient rates.
  

Reporting & Analytics:

• This Week in Report Center Migration ...: This week, we're wrapping up our final key step in the migration of Report Center reports to the Campaigns tab. All key reports will now be available on the Campaigns tab. In the coming weeks, we'll also be removing scheduled reports from the Report Center. But don't worry, your templates have been copied to the "Reports" section of your Control Panel & Library. Here, you can manage saved templates and email options for reports.
• Google Analytics update - Status Dashboard launch: Have there been moments when you've asked yourself, "Is Google Analytics down or is it just me?" With the launch of Status Dashboard, anyone can check on the current status of components of the Google Analytics system including data collection, web report and GData API. See the Analytics Blog for the complete announcement.

Industry Resources:

• Think Holiday 2010 Webinar: Consumer Shopping Intentions: Wednesday, October 20th, 11amPST/ 1pmCST / 2pmEST. During this webinar we will discuss consumers' holiday shopping plans (what, where and when will they purchase?), key shopping dates you don't want to miss, and new strategies for holiday 2010. This webinar is most appropriate for Tech / Consumer Electronic Retail clients, but is open to attendees from all industries. Register here
• Multicultural Spotlight: Reaching US Hispanics: Our friends on the US Hispanic sales team shared best practices for reaching US Hispanic users, as well as dispelled common myths affecting client's Hispanic-targeted efforts. Visit the agency blog for the complete post.
  

Did You Know?

• Google Docs Adds Color-Coded Revision History: Hunting down who changed your doc just got easier with the new revision history interface now available in Google documents. To see it, go to File > See revision history. In addition to color-coded changes by collaborator, we’ve baked in a fancy time stamp. For more details, hit up the Docs Blog.
• Stay Flu Free, Get Vaccinated: We have again partnered with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other agencies on Flu Vaccine Finder. Just search for terms like flu or flu shot and you’ll see a onebox with tips from flu.gov as well as the flu vaccine finder box noting nearby locations for getting the flu vaccine. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave us a shout out in her recent public address and you can check out the Google.org blog post for more.
• Google Phone Gallery: Overwhelmed by the onslaught of awesome new Android phones and wondering which one is right for you? Enter the Google Phone Gallery -- a showcase of some of the best Android phones available on the market today. Now you can find out which Android phones are available in your country or on your carrier of choice, view photos and tech specs, and compare features side-by-side.
  

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Team

Editor's Note: This is being cross-posted from the Inside AdWords Blog

One of our key goals is to help you drive better performance with your display advertising campaigns.

As users increasingly spend time across a growing number of sites, however, display advertising is becoming more challenging. Last year alone there were 47 million new web sites created*. Contextual targeting can help by automatically showing your ad to users on web pages related to your products on the millions of sites in the Google Display Network (GDN). But building and managing your campaigns can still be time-consuming. So how do you reach your target audience easily and efficiently while meeting your business goals?

Today, we’re launching two tools -- the Display Campaign Optimizer and the Contextual Targeting Tool -- to help you maximize your performance on the GDN, while saving you valuable time and resources.

Display Campaign Optimizer. This new tool automatically manages targeting and bidding for your Display Network campaigns with the goal of increasing your conversions while meeting your advertising objectives. You simply provide us with your target cost-per-acquisition (CPA), creatives and budget, and the Display Campaign Optimizer goes to work, showing your ads in all the right places, automatically. It monitors your campaign performance and, in real time, adjusts your campaign accordingly. Your campaigns stay optimized, as it “learns” and does more of what’s working and less of what isn’t. For example, Seventh Generation, a company that sells eco-friendly household cleaning, baby care and personal care products, was looking to connect with more “green” consumers across the web and get them to download coupons from their site for use in-store. After implementing the Display Campaign Optimizer, the tool delivered 60% of the coupons downloaded from their site, with a CPA 20% below their target. Further, analysis of our beta testers showed that on average, campaign using Display Campaign Optimizer were likely responsible for almost one-third of the accounts’ total conversion volume with CPAs within 6% of their peer group CPA.**

The Display Campaign Optimizer is now available globally for larger campaigns running on the Google Display Network.

(watch on YouTube)

Contextual Targeting Tool. While the Display Campaign Optimizer is an automated solution that does all the heavy lifting on your behalf, the Contextual Targeting Tool helps you more efficiently build your own display campaigns. This tool is ideal for those of you who prefer transparency and control over your campaigns’ targeting and bidding. The Contextual Targeting Tool builds tightly themed keyword lists for your display campaigns, which are used to contextually target your ads. Tightly themed keyword lists are the basis of effective contextual targeting. With this tool, you can build dozens, even hundreds, of ad groups in minutes, quickly scaling your campaign performance while ensuring accurate targeting and control over your campaign.

For example, if you sell yoga gear, normally, you might take the time to build out separate ad groups around each of your product lines, such as yoga mats, yoga clothing, yoga gear, etc. Inputting each product category into the Contextual Targeting Tool will generate even more tightly themed keyword lists. For example, inputting ‘yoga mats’ into the tool generates more specific ad groups, such as designer yoga mats, thick yoga mats, yoga mats with designs, etc. These are all separate ad groups that can help you generate additional traffic and sales, that you wouldn’t necessarily think of creating when manually building out your campaigns.

This week, we’re beginning a phased launch of the Contextual Targeting Tool, and it will become available to more advertisers over the coming weeks and months.

Whether you’re looking for easier ways of building out your display campaigns or looking for a more robust, automated solution that continually optimizes bids and targeting, we think these tools will help you easily and efficiently achieve performance at scale with your display campaigns.

Posted by Woojin Kim, Product Manager and Shaun Seo, Product Manager

* Source: Netcraft Web Server Survey, Dec. 2009
** Source: Internal analysis of active beta testers, in comparison with peer group advertisers. Oct. 2010

Thanks for joining us for the second installment of the Google Media Solutions series. We switched things up and will be sharing a YouTube update this week, with the Google Display Network and Remarketing post coming next week.

Online video represents a huge opportunity to reach potential customers with new, compelling formats. YouTube is the perfect platform to reach these customers, drive sales and enhance branding initiatives.

There are many benefits to advertising on YouTube. It is a unique platform which allows your clients to reach potential customers who are engaging online. You can set up YouTube campaigns through the AdWords interface. With our new YouTube Video Targeting Tool, you can target specific audiences based on interest, demographic or specific video content. Your clients can create their message and share it with consumers with their videos or display ads. Additionally, after running a campaign, you can use YouTube Insight to learn how potential customers are interacting with your clients' videos.

There might be some confusion around YouTube ad formats, so here’s some clarification:

• I am not sure if my clients' audiences are on YouTube?: Your clients' audiences are watching YouTube videos. YouTube has users of all ages and 32% of users are between the ages of 35 and 54*. In fact, if the YouTube audience were a country, it would be the 3rd largest country in the world with over 420 million unique visitors every month.
• Our clients don’t have video content. How can we use YouTube?: You don’t need to have video content to advertise on YouTube. You can target your clients' audiences on YouTube with display, text or video ads. Our recommendation, since YouTube is a visual medium, is to test out display ads.
• Is there professional content on YouTube?: YouTube has over 3,500 content partners, including CBS, TV Guide, Fred and JuicyStar07. Our partners are actively uploading content and the video landscape is constantly changing. As this is the case, your clients' target audiences are returning to see new, updated content on YouTube!

Check in next week for the third post, which will be on the Google Display Network, Remarketing and great tips for reaching your customers while they browse the web!

Posted by Laura Salzberg, Agency Team

* comScore MediaMetrix, September 2009

If you're like me, you hate the anticipation of waiting for the holidays to get presents. Well, today's your lucky day, as we have 2 gifts you can use this month -- Think with Google webinars from Consumer Packaged Goods and Consumer Electronics. Enjoy!

• ThinkCPG Webinar - Dig Into Data with Ali: Holiday Recipes
  Thursday, October 14th, 11amPST/ 1pmCST / 2pmEST
  During this webinar we dig deep into Google's search data and uncover the latest recipe search trends, the most searched for recipes during the holidays, how much of this search is coming from meal planners, researchers, and last minute shoppers, examples of brands doing it right, and the huge opportunity to help America dig in this holiday season.
  Register here

• Think Holiday 2010 Webinar: Consumer Shopping Intentions
  Wednesday, October 20th, 11amPST/ 1pmCST / 2pmEST
  During this webinar we will discuss consumers' holiday shopping plans (what, where and when will they purchase?), key shopping dates you don't want to miss, and new strategies for holiday 2010. This webinar is most appropriate for Tech / Consumer Electronic Retail clients, but is open to attendees from all industries.
  Register here
  

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Every week we’ll be providing a brief update on the latest Google product and feature updates relevant to our agency partners. To see past updates, look for the “This Week in Product Updates” label.

If you were in New York City last week, it was hard not to feel the buzz around Ad Week, including Google’s innovative use of video within ad units to broadcast the keynote address, “Display 2015: Smart and Sexy,” for the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s MIXX Conference. In case you missed it, we’ve shared a recording below, along with other sexy new updates, such as Google New, updates to Google Instant, and the winners of Project 10^100.

Tip of the week:

• Something new...Google New. The one place to find everything new from Google.

Search:

• Goodbye Google Adverting Professional program. Hello Google Certification Program: As previously announced, the grace period for agencies to meet the new Google Certification Partner (GCP) criteria will end on Oct. 31st. Come Nov. 1st, any Google Advertising Professional agency not GCP-certified will lose its certification and thus cannot use the badge within marketing collateral and will no longer show up in Partner Search. To attain certified partner status, companies must meet eligibility criteria, including one team member passing a minimum of two certification exams, illustrating practical expertise in managing accounts, and agreement to the terms and conditions of representing AdWords. Learn more about membership criteria and refer to our blog post for all of the details.
• New Keyword Tool Tip: If you’ve used both the previous and updated versions of the Keyword Tool to search for keywords, you may notice differences between the tools for statistics on Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches. This is because the previous version of the Keyword Tool provided search statistics based on Google.com search traffic and traffic from search partners, while the updated version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com traffic only. We've updated these statistics based on user feedback, and hope you find them helpful for keyword selection.
• Updates to Google Instant - new domains, keyboard nav, new modes: This week Google Instant rolled out to additional domains. In addition, we've introduced keyboard navigation to help you explore your Instant search results using just your keyboard, with no need for a mouse or touchpad. We’re also making Instant available within many of the search features in the left panel of the results page including Videos, News, Books, Blogs, Updates and Discussions. Check out the Official Google Blog post to learn more about these new features.
  

Display:

• Another reason to WATCH THIS SPACE: As you know, Google is investing significantly to make display advertising better for users, advertisers and publishers, and we have a number of resources to help you learn more about our predictions for the future of display advertising. Visit the Official Google Blog for a recap of the keynote address delivered at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s MIXX Conference in New York, entitled “Display 2015: Smart and Sexy," and watch a recording of the address (which was originally broadcast through ad units).
• Event recap: How to run a successful social campaign: Last month, YouTube and SEMPO hosted a social marketing panel, "How to run a successful social campaign," for SEMPO's San Francisco and Los Angeles working groups. The panel featured speakers from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Athena East, and highlighted the unique products available to marketers, and best practices for executing measurable, impactful social advertising strategies. Derek Gordon of Yield Software shared what he learned for MediaPost Search Insider. Click here for his complete update.
  

TV:

• Fall line-up for Google TV Ads. Episode 2: Driving Response: For the next 4 weeks, the TV ads team will be sharing tips and resources on AgencyLand and in the Agency Weekly Update. In this week's episode -- with the ability to target only the programs, networks, and dayparts you want, Google TV Ads is the ideal platform to run direct response campaigns. Call Reports and Google Analytics gives you the opportunity to identify sweet spots within your programming so that you can more aggressively go after what’s performing well and eliminate what’s not working. See how Oregon Mint Company went from $1,000 to $5,000 in daily sales.

Reporting & Analysis:

• This Week in Report Center Migration: As we embark on the final major phase of Report Center migration, the ad, search query, placement performance, geographic, and demographic performance reports can now all be found directly within the UI. In addition, we've rolled out several enhancements based on your feedback, including the ability for My Client Center users to drill down to the Control Panel & Library to see all available report templates for the account (regardless of who created them). Over the next few months, we’ll continue to add more metrics so stay tuned for future updates. In the meantime, check out the detailed PDF and refer to the Help Center for progress updates.

Did you know?

• Project 10^100 winners announced: Two years ago we began Project 10^100 by asking you to share your ideas for changing the world by helping as many people as possible. People from more than 170 countries submitted more than 150,000 ideas, which were narrowed down to 16 big ideas. The five ideas that received the most votes are the winners of Project 10^100. We're giving a total of $10 million across them to solve global challenges ranging from free education content to government transparency to innovative public transportation. See the Official Google Blog for the complete announcement.
• Fresh Fonts Come to Google Docs: Feeling limited by the same old stale font? Spice up your Google Docs with one of our 6 new fonts. And the best part is, there’s no need to install the new typefaces since Google Docs uses web fonts - just load your document and the latest set of fonts will be there, ready to use. How easy is that?!
  

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Team

From Old Spice to Tipp-Ex to Dynomighty, many large and small brands and agencies have done it right when it comes to advertising on YouTube. Do you ever wonder what makes a successful campaign? Are you considering YouTube as part of your media mix? Just how do advertisers get viewers to seek out and share videos about deodorant or magnetic jewelry or stationary supplies? Well, YouTube Show & Tell, the home for the best creative marketing examples on YouTube, interviewed the creative minds behind Old Spice, Dynomighty, and Axe to give you a peek into the creative process behind campaigns that have earned millions of video views. We also talk with Benjamin Palmer, CEO and co-founder of The Barbarian Group, about the origins and vision for Show & Tell. To see the full story and interviews, please visit the YouTube Blog.

Posted by Mark Sabec, Product Marketing Manager, who recently loved Tipp-Ex’s Shoot the Bear campaign

Over the next four weeks, we will be sharing tips and tricks for positioning Google products to your clients in the Google Media Solutions Series. We are excited to share the benefits of our solutions, debunk common myths and pass on easy implementation tips to help your accounts reach their full potential.

So, let's get started with Google’s search marketing product, Google AdWords. Using Google AdWords, you can target Google.com and the Google Search Network. This is a great solution to connect with potential customers who are searching for your clients’ products and services. It is flexible, measurable, and accountable. With AdWords, you can easily manage the spend of the account and control costs by setting a daily budget and maximum cost-per-click (CPC). Another benefit is that it’s easy to make changes to your clients’ ad text, as changes to ads take affect almost instantaneously. Lastly, as an added benefit, you can track the return on investment (ROI) of your account by using Conversion Tracking or Google Analytics.

There are some common myths that your clients may have heard regarding search and we want to make sure that we clarify these misconceptions:

• My website shows organically, so I don’t need to advertise: It is great to have a highly ranked organic listing; however you can’t control the message to your potential customers with organic listings in the same way that you can control it with search marketing campaigns. By advertising on Google.com and the search network, you can control the message that you share with all potential customers and determine the landing page to which you direct your potential customers after they click on the ad. These features can lead to increased sales.
  
  In addition, organic results are likely only capturing a very small portion of the relevant traffic on Google. For example, a consumer electronics advertiser might appear high in the search results for their brand terms, or specific trademarks relevant to their company, but AdWords can expose their message on a wide variety of related terms like 'digital cameras' 'netbooks' and 'HD TVs'.
  

• Competitors can click on my ads maliciously: We take the security of AdWords accounts very seriously and have many resources in place to prevent your account from accruing invalid clicks. While invalid clicks occur less often than commonly perceived, we have three filters in place to protect your account: detection and filtering techniques, advanced monitoring techniques and manual reviews from our team.

Stay tuned for next week’s post on the Google Display Network, remarketing and great tips for reaching your customers while they browse the web!

Posted by Laura Salzberg, Agency Team