Google Data

Posted by Scott Zuccarino, Product Manager

Starting today, we’ll be rolling out changes to some international versions of Google News in an effort to unify the News experience across editions. As in the U.S. version, these changes offer richer visual navigation, help you find trending and popular news more easily, give you the option to further customize your news experience, and allow you to share pieces you care about in a simpler way.

We’ve also been working to give you a closer relationship with the publishers you love, who can now highlight some of their most compelling content right on your Google News homepage.

In order to bring you the best Google News experience possible, we’ll be periodically refreshing select editions, starting with the U.K. and India. We hope you enjoy these enhancements. As always, please feel free to submit your feedback or visit our Help Center if you have more questions.

Posted by David Smydra, Product Specialist and Justin Kosslyn, Product Manager

(Cross-posted from the Gmail blog)

Have you ever poured your heart and soul and blood, sweat and tears to help test and perfect a product that, after launch, flopped miserably? Not because it was not working right (you tested the snot out of it), but because it was not the right produc…

Being able to track campaign performance starts with proper tagging of the relevant conversion points on your advertiser’s website. If your tags are not set up properly to begin with, then you could lose precious information on how your campaign is p…

My earthly body casts no shadows’Tis my thoughts and words that bring umbrage that is shade to some and darkness to others Testivus was but a bit of child play to appetizeAt GTAC 2011 the greater truth shall be revealedTest is deadAnd I the ex…

We’ve all heard the old adage about not knowing which 50% of your advertising is wasted. Well, TV advertisers often tell us this is absolutely true. And with the proliferation of online ad formats that are highly targeted and measurable, the impact of TV ads can feel even more abstract by comparison. It doesn’t help that typical TV buys are often slow to provide data, and that data is often very limited.

The good news is that TV advertising technology has been advancing rapidly, helping advertisers better understand how TV helps them achieve their marketing objectives. Platforms like Google TV Ads are bringing targeting, measurement and speed to TV like never before. Unfortunately, too many advertisers don’t know these solutions exist.

It’s time that changed. To that end, we’re excited to announce the launch of an advertising campaign to spread the word about Google TV Ads and its ability to make your TV buy smarter.

If you frequent sites like AdAge or MediaPost, you are likely to see our campaign over the next couple of months.  You can also check out our new campaign website at google.com/smarterTVads.

Posted by Eric Meyerson, Head of TV and Video Ads Marketing 

We announced our partnership with DIRECTV this past summer, and this week we completed integration to extend the reach of Google TV Ads into 30M homes, soon to grow to 35M. Partnering with DIRECTV, the largest satellite provider and second largest TV distributor in the US, enables us to offer multi-distributor airings on Bloomberg Television, Cartoon Network (West), Centric, Chiller, Current TV, Discovery Fit and Health, Fox Business, Fuel, Ovation, Sleuth and TV Guide across all dayparts, every day.

We’re excited about what this enables for advertisers — more reach, across more operators with no additional work. We’ll automatically make sure your ads air across distributors including DIRECTV to maximize the reach on each of your targets while staying within your budgets. We’re working quickly to integrate our Verizon FiOS and ViaMedia partnerships to elevate reach to 35M homes, or almost one-third of TV viewing homes in the US.

Extending Your Reach with Google TV Ads 
Increasing the reach of your TV campaigns across this new inventory is a simple process: target any of the networks where we have DIRECTV inventory, and your campaign will be eligible for airings across all of our partners including DIRECTV. It has never been easier to buy airings across multiple operators while reaching a targeted and measurable national audience.

We’re thrilled to continually add reach for our advertisers and work with a growing number of committed partners. Stay tuned for future announcements and learn more about Google TV Ads at our website: www.google.com/tvads.

Posted by Trevor O’Brien, Product Manager for Google TV Ads

2011 is proving to be a big year for video, both online and offline. In fact, TV viewing in the US has held steady at an average of 5 hours per day while online video usage surged by 45% this year to over 4 hours per month.* Video consumption is positioned to only continue growing as consumers crave more information and entertainment across numerous devices.

Naturally, this trend increases the importance of video for businesses, but we know that getting started with video advertising can be a formidable challenge. First and foremost, how do you create a compelling and effective video ad on a reasonable budget?

That’s why we’re excited to announce Google’s extended partnership with SpotMixer which allows Google AdWords and TV Ads customers to create custom ads absolutely free of charge. Your ads can be aired across TV and online video sites as many or as few times as you wish. This offer represents our increased commitment to advertisers who want to leverage video to increase brand awareness and ROI.

Integrated directly into Google AdWords, SpotMixer provides a simple and powerful ad creation tool that takes your existing AdWords campaigns and converts text ads into a tailored video or TV ad. From there, select from a variety of professional templates which set the pacing, transitions, effects and design of the ad. SpotMixer also provides a full gallery of stock images, videos and music in addition to allowing the use of your own photos, text, and logos.

Viola, you now have a custom ad for use across Google TV Ads and Google’s Display Network including YouTube.

Already have a TV or video ad? Upload it directly into SpotMixer to edit the entire ad or just select parts to improve aesthetics and effectiveness. Once you’re done, SpotMixer will provide the correctly timed formatted file to download onto your computer then upload directly into your Google TV Ads or AdWords ad library.

Imagine the power of this free tool which allows 100% of your budget to go straight to your media plan rather than ad creative.

Test different calls to action
•  Customize different ads for your various target segments (for example, customize one ad version for female consumers and another for male)
• Get specific in your tracking — build ads with different phone numbers and tracking URLs to test effectiveness of different media placements
• Run seasonal ads throughout the year

Create integrated campaigns
• Create :15 and :30 versions of your ad to run on TV and online
• Try bookending with two :15 seconds ads

The possibilities are only as limited as your imagination and business goals. Find SpotMixer in your AdWords account in two ways:
Via Google TV Ads campaign page — select ‘New Ad’ and click on the link to SpotMixer
Via Google AdWords — select ‘New Ad’ and access SpotMixer via the Video and Audio section of Display Ad Builder.

2011 promises to be an exciting year for video advertising and along with our partners at SpotMixer, we hope these tools put you on the path to success.

*Nielsen Three Screens Report, Q1 2010 and Nielsen Overall Online Video Usage (U.S.), January 2011


Post by Neha Mandal, Product Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

In July we asked you, our readers, what new features you wanted to see on Google Finance. We received and enthusiastic response with over 3,700 ideas and 38,000 votes. One of the top 10 requests with over 700 votes was a Dictionary function for key financial terms and ratios.

We’re happy to announce that we have launched this feature for the financial terms at the top of the company page. To see the definitions, go to a company page on Google Finance and hover your mouse over the financial ratios beside the stock price. You will see a pop-up tooltip for terms such as 52 week, Shares, Vol/ Avg and Div/yield.

To see other launches that have come from your feedback visit our Product Ideas blog post . If you’re curious to see all ideas that were submitted, take a look through Google Finance Product Ideas.

Founded in 1985, SelectQuote.com pioneered an impartial, pressure-free way to shop for term life insurance from competing insurance companies. The company has long since utilized television to drive awareness and inbound queries but in 2008, it added Google TV Ads to its media mix to enhance those efforts.

“Right out of the gate, we saw positive results — lots of incremental calls and efficient media costs,” says Kim Terrill, director of broadcast media for SelectQuote.com. However, Kim admits that tracking had become challenging with over 25 unique phone numbers mapping to various ads. SelectQuote decided to simplify and use just one phone number even though that meant not being able to track which networks were bringing in which calls.

Around this time, Google TV Ads began experimenting with its call attribution feature which automates the analysis and attribution of incoming customer calls and produces reports detailing call metrics for each spot aired. Using Google technology, the feature analyzes and understands which ad drove which calls, even if multiple ads drive viewers to the same phone number. After SelectQuote’s call logs were uploaded into the system, Google matched incoming calls with aired spots based on date, time, historical call volumes and a host of other factors. “We started to see trends and were able to identify the targets that brought in the highest and lowest cost-per-lead (CPL) on a consistent basis, Kim notes. “I could adjust my budgets and bids at anytime based on this data to easily manage to a desirable CPL.”

Back in August 2008, we launched a Google Translate HTML5 web app for iPhone users. Today, the official Google Translate for iPhone app is available for download from the App Store. The new app has all of the features of the web app, plus some signifi…

Google expands operator footprint in the start of 2011 with 18 cable providers, 68 networks, and 2M additional homes

We’re excited to start off 2011 with a strategic agreement that continues to grow the reach of Google TV Ads. Our newest inventory partner, Viamedia, is a provider of advertising sales services to partners including 18 of the top 30 cable operators in the US. By partnering with Viamedia, Google adds 2 million homes to the TV Ads system on 68 popular cable networks across 18 cable operators.

This continued growth of our platform means 35 million cable, satellite, and telco homes in the US are now integrated into Google TV Ads. Our platform now offers 1,200 GRPs and 1.5 billion available impressions each week for advertisers to target through one simple interface.

Both Viamedia and Google are forward-looking in our approach to television advertising, making this a natural collaboration. We are thrilled to to welcome our new partners and offer our advertisers greater reach across the television universe.

Posted by Mark Piesanen, Strategic Partner Development for Google TV Ads

We’re excited to announce the ability to only pay for the audience delivered on your Google TV Ads campaigns. Google TV Ads has always emphasized accountability – advertisers only pay for the households that are tuned into their ads. Now, there’s another accountable option for advertisers and agencies: buying based on the demographic audience that is tuned into your ad.

Google TV Ads offers a rich set of tools to help you find the networks and shows that best reach your desired audience. We’re now taking that advanced functionality to the next level by offering you a choice to bid on and only pay for the relevant audience you’re interested in; you don’t pay for the audience you’re not interested in reaching.

For example, if you are primarily interested in reaching males 18-49, you’d simply create a campaign, indicate that you want to reach males 18-49, and specify the most you’re willing to pay on a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) basis for in-demo viewers.

After you’ve defined an audience, Google TV Ads’ tools will help find the spots that deliver that audience in the highest concentrations based on aggregate viewership data, and you choose which networks, dayparts and programs you wish to add to your campaign.
If you indicate that you wanted to bid on an audience, you will only pay for the viewers that fall into that audience and were tuned-in to your ad. To measure the number of in-demo viewers for a spot, Google TV Ads uses a combination of Nielsen viewership data, aggregate demographic data and anonymous set-top-box data. The audience buying option will be available on all cable TV networks and dayparts we carry that are also measured by Nielsen.

For some advertisers and agencies who regularly advertise on TV, this feature brings an audience buying option to Google TV Ads that you’re already familiar with. For other advertisers, this feature provides an improved and more efficient way to choose and buy your exact audience on national television.

To learn more about Google TV Ads, please check out our website.

Posted by Steve Stukenborg, Product Manager for Google TV Ads

If you missed our recent webinar on ways to reach New Year’s “Resolutionaries” interested in diet, fitness, supplements, wellness, rehab and treatment products and services, don’t worry. That doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the content presented! …