Google Adwords Mastery » Display Ads http://googleadwordsmastery.com Gaining competitive advantage through Google Adwords Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:33:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Think With Google’s December Adventure: Display and 2011 Trends Recap http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/6TyX5_vCl9s/think-with-googles-december-adventure_16.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/6TyX5_vCl9s/think-with-googles-december-adventure_16.html#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:30:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander December Adventure finished its third week with a focus on display and trends from 2011.

Here are the five insights and tips we covered this week:
Click on the titles to view the original posts and comments.

#1. Monday: Rich media ads are 2.7x as effective in driving purchase intent vs. basic Flash
  • Be sure to make video a core component of your display advertising mix to maximize holiday sales.
#2. Tuesday: 96% of people visiting a website leave without completing a transaction
  • Use remarketing to follow-up with targeted shoppers who browsed your products and left, or abandoned their shopping carts part-way through the purchase process.
#3. Wednesday: Rich media ads grew 66% last year and are predicted to be over 50% of all display ads by 2015
#4. Thursday: Use Google Zeitgeist 2011 to see the hottest gifts and trends for holiday shopping lists
  • Our year-end Google Zeitgeist launches today, and it's chock full of fascinating tidbits about what's been burning up the search queries this past year
#5. Friday: The search for holiday gifts is on!
  • Find out what's burning up the search charts as we approach the holidays with this week's top shopping queries.
To learn more, follow Think with Google on Google+ or add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/12/think-with-google%e2%80%99s-december-adventure-display-and-2011-trends-recap/feed/ 0 +1 button in DFP for direct sold ads http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/vS_HIeOvi-8/1-button-in-dfp-for-direct-sold-ads.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/vS_HIeOvi-8/1-button-in-dfp-for-direct-sold-ads.html#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:34:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander +1 button on search results to make it easier for people to get recommendations from the people they trust right when they’re searching. Then in early October we expanded that to include Google Display Network ads across the web on both desktop and mobile.

Today, we’re excited to expand this capability to publishers who sell their ad space directly to advertisers using a new creative template available in DART for Publishers and the new DFP. Using the Image or Flash with Google +1 custom creative template, publishers can now add the Google +1 button to their ads so that people can share your offers with others across the web.

If you’d like to learn more about how publishers can integrate the +1 button on your direct-sold ads, please visit the DART or new DFP help centers.

Posted by David Flinner, Product Manager.
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/12/1-button-in-dfp-for-direct-sold-ads/feed/ 0 +1 button to start appearing on display ads today http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/PslG_LDzmvc/1-button-to-start-appearing-on-display.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/PslG_LDzmvc/1-button-to-start-appearing-on-display.html#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:32:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander +1 button and annotations with your ads. Now, with a single click, people can recommend your ads’ landing pages to their friends and contacts.

As we explained in our initial announcement several weeks ago, we believe that incorporating personal recommendations into display ads has the potential to change the way people view advertising. A display ad becomes much more powerful when people can see which of their friends and contacts have chosen to endorse it.

We’re working to add the +1 button and annotations to all eligible inventory over the next couple weeks. So while you might not see them immediately, we’re working hard to roll them out to all advertisers as quickly as possible.

To learn more, you can read our initial announcement or visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords Team
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/10/1-button-to-start-appearing-on-display-ads-today/feed/ 0 Display creative checklist: building direct response ads http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/uT9z9EI-G3s/display-creative-checklist-building.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/uT9z9EI-G3s/display-creative-checklist-building.html#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:45:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander

If you’re designing display ads and have direct response goals, your ads need to catch the user’s eye, convey key information, and encourage them to click and explore your website. To get you started, we’ve put together the top ten tips learned through the collective experience of hundreds of Google AdWords account teams. These ten tips will help drive effective direct response marketing campaigns.


1. Call-to-Action
A call-to-action phrase or button encourages users to click on your ad and clearly lets them know what is coming next. While direct call-to-actions such as “Buy Now!“ may be common, they can also be too insistent. Using indirect call-to-actions like “Explore Now“ or short phrases such as “Travel Your Dream“ help encourage action without demanding a strong commitment.



2. Call-to-Action in Every Frame

Include a call-to-action & key message in every frame of your ad – especially the final frame. This ensures that you get across these two very important points no matter when the user's attention is drawn to your ad. When your animation stops, your ad will continue to compel action from users.



3. Company or Brand logo
Keep your brand or product logo in front of users in all frames. This will highlight your brand and can heighten credibility and increase your click-through rate. If this isn’t possible, include your logo in the final frame of animated ads to ensure your brand shows after animation has ended.



4. Pricing and Promotion
The more information on pricing that a user can gain from your display ad, the better. Consider providing promotional pricing to the audiences your ad is reaching. Discount offers supported by discount codes can help attract attention. If users don’t like the price or terms of your offer, they won’t click on your ad. Pre-qualifying users can save you the cost of that click.


5. Clear Value Proposition
Include a clear, compelling message highlighting the benefit of your product or service. If your ad is animated,

consider presenting a value proposition in each frame. Users should feel as though they are missing out on something by not clicking.



6. Sense of Urgency
Create a sense of urgency in your ad. Referring to deadlines or limits in quantity and availability can persuade users to give your message consideration right away.



7. Coordinate Colors & Images
Customize the color scheme of your ad to match your image or logo, and use easy-to-view colors for backgrounds and fonts. Extremely bright colors can be unpleasant and difficult to read. Using transparent PNG-format images can greatly improve aesthetics within your ad.



8. Balance Text & Images
Take advantage of both text and images to convey your message. Text and images are processed by different parts of the brain. Integrating both into your ad – harmoniously – can help you influence viewers cognitively and emotionally. Complementary text and images may help viewers remember your ad long after they have seen it.



9. Relevant Landing Page
Direct users to the most relevant landing page where the product or service is described in detail. The message on the page should match the message or promotion in your ad. This can have a positive impact on your users, conversion rate, and quality score. Remember to match the look & feel of your ad to the landing page.


Display Ad

Landing Page


10. Cast a Wide Net

Create your ad in every standard size or format to ensure that it reaches all of the highest performing corners of the Google Display Network. Some sites only accommodate specific formats and ad sizes. A full suite of ad sizes will improve your ad’s chances of appearing on those sites.




You can find these ten tips on the Display Creative Checklist website here.


Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew

]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/09/display-creative-checklist-building-direct-response-ads/feed/ 0 There’s a perfect ad for everyone http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/0YLEQQtqhEE/theres-perfect-ad-for-everyone.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/0YLEQQtqhEE/theres-perfect-ad-for-everyone.html#comments Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:01:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander On Thursday, June 9th, Neal Mohan, Google's VP of Display Advertising, delivered a keynote at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Innovation Days @ Internet Week. The talk is entitled “There’s a perfect ad for everyone,” and during it Neal made six predictions about how display advertising will change for the better by 2015.

You can view the recording at google.com/watchthisspace.

The talk was about the new technologies in display advertising that are resulting in better user experiences, better advertiser results and incredible growth for the industry. We’re investing significantly to help improve display advertising for advertisers, publishers and users. But we’re poised to make even greater advances in the years ahead. We’re at the beginning of a user-focused revolution, where people connect and respond to display ads in ways we’ve never seen before.

If you watch the talk, let us know what you think by following us and sending us a note.

Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/06/there%e2%80%99s-a-perfect-ad-for-everyone/feed/ 0 Significant advances for Display Ad Builder http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/TKQG7Hc5r5M/significant-advances-for-display-ad.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/TKQG7Hc5r5M/significant-advances-for-display-ad.html#comments Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:41:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander Display Ad Builder to help you design display ads in minutes for free. Now, 100 new advertisers try Display Ad Builder every day.

Today we are announcing a number of improvements to Display Ad Builder to help you achieve all your marketing goals, from driving conversions to building your brand.

Quickly manage hundreds of ads with bulk copying and editing
With the newest version of AdWords Editor, you can now copy your Display Ad Builder ads across campaigns and make basic bulk edits, including ad names, destination and display URLs, and ad statuses. With AdWords Editor you can quickly create customized creatives for each ad group. For example, you could create an ad for marathon training tips and customize the creative to mention the Chicago marathon for users in Chicago and the Philly marathon for Philadelphia.

Sample Display Ad Builder ad copied using AdWords Editor and then customized based on user location.
click for full size image

If you're already using AdWords Editor, you'll be prompted to upgrade automatically. Just follow the instructions to keep your unposted changes. If you’re not using AdWords Editor, visit our website to learn more and download it.

Drive engagement with social and expandable templates
Display Ad Builder also can help build your brand and engage users with our new social and expandable templates. We are testing social templates, which include the latest tweets from your Twitter account in the creative. Social templates are really useful if you want to run timely promotions that change daily. You can run a new tweet, instead of creating an entirely new creative. Social templates can also help you build your Twitter follower base.


An ad created using one of Display Ad Builder's social templates.
click for full size image

We've also released expandable templates, which encourage more interaction from interested users by increasing your ad’s real estate on the page. When a user clicks on your expandable ad, it expands to twice its width or height, depending on the format.

Create the perfect ad by customizing your templates
We're also launching template customization to give you greater flexibility to create the ad you want. You can now move text boxes and images where you want within the template. Also, text boxes can be resized, so you can include more content. Combine these new features, with 180 templates, nearly 100 fonts, and unlimited color options to chose from.


Now you can move around text boxes and pictures and re-size text boxes to customize templates to fit your needs.
click for full size image

Never tried Display Ad Builder? Try our free demo to see how it works. To start creating your ads, go to your ‘Ads’ tab in a new or existing campaign in your AdWords account. Then, click ‘New Ad’ and select ‘Display Ad Builder.’


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2010/12/significant-advances-for-display-ad-builder/feed/ 0 Expand your business – Chrome fast http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/jm7oXmdewaU/expand-your-business-chrome-fast.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/jm7oXmdewaU/expand-your-business-chrome-fast.html#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:03:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander Editors note: This is a guest blog post from the Chrome Web Store team, presenting you a new opportunity to grow your business on the web.

Growing revenue and traffic are important goals for most online businesses. The Chrome Web Store that we made available a few days ago can help you with both.

By distributing your web content and applications through the store, you can connect with more than 120 million people who use Chrome regularly. You can also earn revenue both by selling your apps to Chrome users and by showing ads within them. And the best part? Creating an app is quick and easy.

To learn more about how to take advantage of this opportunity and how you can build your app, check out our new website at www.google.com/chrome/CreateAnApp or watch the video below.



Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2010/12/expand-your-business-chrome-fast/feed/ 0 Display ads on Google Images trial http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/NfjMyUTZ4bc/display-ads-on-google-images-trial.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/NfjMyUTZ4bc/display-ads-on-google-images-trial.html#comments Tue, 16 Nov 2010 18:39:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander Google Images redesign this July, we introduced Image Search Ads, which include a thumbnail alongside your ad text. We learned that on Google Images, image-based ads provided great results for our advertisers. They are also a highly useful format for users because they show commercial content directly related to the user's query.

Today we're expanding the image ad formats available on Google Images by testing rich media leaderboard units that appear above Google Images search results and invite you to try new products and services. With the introduction of this display ad format on Google Images, you now have a great opportunity to reach users with engaging ads, whether your goal is to build brand awareness, or to drive clicks and conversions.



Ad by Converse on Google Images, designed to gain awareness about their new shoe model.
Ad placed by Range Online, an iProspect Company.

click for full size image

Advertising on Google Images allows you to reach hundreds of millions of users around the world who use the site to find relevant photos and images every week. Today display ads on Google Images are available on a small fraction of queries in the US and UK only. Over time, we hope to make display ads on Google Images available on more queries globally.

Display ads on Google Images work the same as they would on other sites in the Google Display Network. They're triggered by the content on the page - in this case, that’s defined by the category of the search term that the user enters. If, for example, you target your ad to appear on Google Images on travel-related content, your ad may appear on Google Images if a user searches for related terms like [travel], [vacation], [beach] or [summer holiday].

It’s easy to start running display ads on Google Images. Just use the AdWords placement targeting tool to target Google Images like any other site on the Google Display Network, and choose the type of content you want to advertise alongside. You can upload your own leaderboard format ad or create one using Display Ad Builder. Pricing can be either CPM or CPC, depending on your goals. If you want more information about the advertising options on Google Images, visit the Help Center.

We’re invested in making display advertising work better for both users and advertisers. We look forward to introducing new, innovative placements and formats on the Google Display Network to help you reach your advertising goals.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2010/11/display-ads-on-google-images-trial/feed/ 0 YouTube Homepage: Promoted Videos advertisers can get it while it’s hot http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/7C0Onh6oAvw/youtube-homepage-promoted-videos.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/7C0Onh6oAvw/youtube-homepage-promoted-videos.html#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:01:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander Cross posted from the YouTube blog.


For big advertisers on YouTube, the YouTube homepage is often seen as the holy grail. It's the highest-profile placement on YouTube, providing marketers with the ability to deliver a big impact and drive attention to content, trailers or advertising. To give you an idea of the scale we’re talking about, the homepage has been delivering nearly 45 million impressions per day and 18 million unique visitors a day in the U.S. — that's the equivalent to the ratings of several top-rated prime-time television shows combined. While impressions and unique visitors are never guaranteed, users who visit the homepage are actively looking for the next video to watch, so advertisers naturally want to be part of the action.

A little known fact is that a few days each quarter, we open up the YouTube homepage to Promoted Video advertisers. These companies end up getting a bit of extra exposure from their campaigns. There are a couple of ways to make sure your ads show up on the homepage, should the opportunity arise. First, log into your AdWords account, and under "Campaign Settings," consider the following:

  • In order for Promoted Videos ads to appear on YouTube browse pages, watch pages, and on the homepage, select "Display Network"
  • To appear *only* on YouTube placements, select "Relevant pages only on the placements I manage" and add youtube.com as a managed placement.
  • To appear *only* on the homepage, select "Relevant pages only on the placements I manage" and add youtube.com::pyv-top-right-homepage as a managed placement
  • Set a specific bid for the homepage and keep in mind that it is a more competitive placement
  • Please note: this feature is only available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and The U.S.

Because the dates we run Promoted Videos on the YouTube homepage vary, we unfortunately don't have a set schedule for you. However, we typically know about 48 hours in advance. If you have a managed account, you can ask your Google representative to let you know when these opportunities arise so that you can increase your bids to improve your chances of showing up.

Several advertisers – large and small – have found great success showing Promoted Videos on the homepage. One YouTube advertiser, Dynomighty Design, grew their entire business by using Promoted Videos and getting placements on the YouTube homepage. Founder Terrence Kelleman says: "YouTube helps us sell our product, learn about our audience and build a strong brand image. And as a small company with a limited advertising budget, YouTube has become our main advertising strategy. Not only are costs low with Promoted Videos, but healthy conversions also make YouTube our #1 referring site in terms of traffic and revenue." To read more about Dynomighty's story, check out their original YouTube video and their feature on the Official Google Blog.

The YouTube homepage has a captive, engaged audience and it's our goal to let advertisers understand how best to reach customers that would be interested in hearing from them. For more information about advertising on YouTube, visit youtube.com/advertising, and for more information on Promoted Videos, check out ads.youtube.com.

Posted by Mark Sabec, Product Marketing Manager, YouTube
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2010/09/youtube-homepage-promoted-videos-advertisers-can-get-it-while-its-hot/feed/ 0 Get design tips to boost the impact of your display ad http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/VBbgfpNcmHk/get-design-tips-to-boost-impact-of-your.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/VBbgfpNcmHk/get-design-tips-to-boost-impact-of-your.html#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:34:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander
While the right text and placement of your display ad are always crucial, you should also make sure that your ad is well designed. But how exactly can you ensure that your ad stands out on a web page, looks professional and is consistent with your overall brand message?

On Thursday, September 2nd, we’ll be holding a short one-off live course on effective display ad design. The session will give you a set of practical design tips including key insights on using color, font and images. The focus will be on the Display Ad Builder tool, although the tips are applicable to display design in general. The course is suitable for anyone interested in display advertising.

The course will be held on Thursday, September 2nd at: 3pm - 4pm BST / GMT+1 (London), 10am-11am EDT (New York), 7am-8am PDT (San Francisco).

Sign up here to attend.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew
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