Our AdWords engineers are constantly working to make ads more relevant and useful. We’re also working to give users more transparency and choice with the ads that they see. These efforts help maintain user trust, which is fundamental to the effectiveness of AdWords.New features for usersStarting today we’re placing a “Why these ads?” link on Google search results and Gmail (known as Google Mail in some countries)…

(Cross posted from the AdWords Agency Blog)Whether it’s do-it-yourself spider napkin rings for Halloween or tips on planting an edible garden, HGTV provides ideas and entertainment to people passionate about home improvement. When promoting the next season of Selling New York, it made sense that HGTV try out YouTube TrueView video ads to reach the right audience – paying only when a viewer has chosen to watch its ad…

Today, many businesses are using location targeting in their online ad campaigns to reach the right customers and improve campaign performance. Online agency iProspect, for example, uses location targeting to focus on top performing geographic areas for their client Talbots. As a result, they were able to lower their cost-per-click (CPC) by 36 percent, driving higher quality leads at a lower cost…

By the end of this year, advertisers accessing the AdWords web interface will be required to use Internet Explorer 7 or 8, or any other compatible browser to log in into their account. If you are still accessing AdWords with Internet Explorer 6, you’ll see a notice in your account encouraging you to upgrade as soon as possible. For optimal performance and a faster experience, we recommend you use the latest version of your preferred browser to access AdWords…

By the end of this year, advertisers accessing the AdWords web interface will be required to use Internet Explorer 7 or 8, or any other compatible browser to log in into their account.If you are still accessing AdWords with Internet Explorer 6, you’ll see a notice in your account encouraging you to upgrade as soon as possible. For optimal performance and a faster experience, we recommend you use the latest version of your preferred browser to access AdWords…

Let’s say you’re a custom sneaker maker. Or you run a yoga retreat center. Or maybe you even sell vegan Vietnamese out of a gourmet food truck. Your business has its own unique story to tell. If you had the chance to show the world what your business is all about — from its founding roots to the ways it changes your customers’ lives — would you take it?Today you have that chance. We’re pleased to be presenting “My Business Story®” alongside American Express…

Over the next few weeks in the US and UK, we’ll be rolling out the ability for advertisers to bid for phone calls — in addition to bidding for clicks — when they show Google search ads on computers and tablets.

Potential for more calls

Let’s say your business sees phone calls as a valuable lead source. You’re willing to pay up to $5 for a phone call and up to $1 for a click from a prospective customer who searched for “caribbean cruise” on Google search…

Today, we’re officially introducing AdWords Express in the UK and Germany. AdWords Express is a faster and simpler way to start advertising online in under five minutes and is designed to help local businesses that aren’t already AdWords advertisers create effective campaigns. Watch the video below to see how you can create and run an online campaign from start to finish in just a few clicks:AdWords Express helps potential customers find your website or Place page and gives you a quick and straightforward way to connect with them and grow your business…

For many online businesses, each day you might have hundreds of new listings, items that temporarily change availability, or items that are permanently removed from stock. And at the same time, user search behavior can be a moving target — each day, 16% of searches that occur, Google has never seen before. So even well-managed AdWords campaigns containing thousands of keywords can miss relevant searches, experience delays getting ads written for new products, or get out of sync with what’s actually available on your web site…

Not sure how to most effectively leverage and measure your mobile marketing campaigns? Well, you’re not alone. While mobile is an incredible new way to distribute content and reach customers on the go, it also presents a unique challenge when it comes to measuring the impact of our mobile efforts (which may include applications, advertisements and/or mobile-optimized websites).

Tune in on November 2nd for Google’s Think Mobile webinar, Mobile Advertising: Right Person, Right Time, Right Message – Finally!, led by Avinash Kaushik, Digital Marketing Evangelist…

Advertising is about getting your message in front of the right people. Whether you need to increase brand awareness or maximize ROI on direct response campaigns, your challenge continues to be about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. How can you do this intelligently, and at scale? Audience Solutions on the Google Display Network (GDN) provides the insight you need, connecting potential customers by with exactly what they are looking for — when they are ready to buy…

Starting today, if you’re running display ads through the Google Display Network, you may begin seeing the +1 button and personal 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…

When searching on Google, users appreciate results that are relevant and deliver a great experience after they click. In August, we announced trials in Brazil, Spanish-speaking Latin America, Spain, and Portugal1 that increased the weight given to relevance and landing page quality in determining Quality Score and how ads are ranked on Google. The goal was to improve the user experience with search ads…

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)When CafePress first started printing shirts in 1999, online retail was still a nascent industry and Google had yet to sell its first ad. Soon CafePress started selling products through search ads on Google, and their business took off. Today, CafePress hosts millions of shops online where customers can choose from more than 325 million products on nearly any topic, from wall art to phone cases…

Global Top Contributor Summit: real people behind user names and friendly smiles instead of emoticons. Meeting offline for the first time! 

As you may have read in the official Google blog, the Global Top Contributor Summit recently took place in sunny California. This two-day event brought together for the first time over 250 Top Contributors from Google forums. Top Contributors are longtime members of the Google Help Forums who, over time, have distinguished themselves as true experts by providing helpful tips, advice, and support to other forum visitors…

Last week, we shared examples of how direct response marketers are driving strong results with display advertising. But you’ve heard it before — beyond driving immediate clicks and conversions, display builds brands. And as digital budgets accelerate, for an increasingly growing number of brands, display advertising has become an important part of their strategy. In fact, in the recently conducted Advertiser Intelligence Reports study, by Advertiser Perceptions, advertisers are planning on spending more digital display dollars in the next 12 months for brand goals than direct response…

In July, we launched our first issue of Think Quarterly, a publication that packages up the insights and ideas that we learn from both inside and outside of Google. Today we’re launching our second edition, the “People” issue. It explores the latest technologies connecting us and the big ideas driving society forward.One way we can gain insight into people’s actions, intentions, and future actions is through their search behavior…

(Cross-posted from the AdWords Agency Blog)Few would argue that online display advertising is playing an increasingly important role in the marketing mix. While we frequently talk about how the vast majority of our top advertisers have run a Google display campaign in the last year while continuing to increase their investment, today we’re shining a light on some specific examples.For each brand we’re highlighting today, display was an integral part of their broader marketing strategy…

Earlier today we announced several exciting new additions to Google+, including many on mobile. We’d like to announce one more addition for our AdWords advertisers, +1 on the Google Display Network.Since its introduction on search results and search ads, the +1 button has been installed on over a million websites across the web with over 4 billion impressions daily. Starting early October we’re expanding that to include display ads across the web on both desktop and mobile…

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…

To improve our user experience with Google AdWords, today we’ll begin reviewing paused ads in the same way we review active ads. We’re proactively reviewing paused ads to eliminate unnecessary delays in getting your ads approved and ultimately enhance your ability to plan and manage campaigns.New and existing unreviewed paused ads will be sent through the standard ad approval process. This means that paused ads will be subject to our AdWords advertising policies, and ads that violate one or more of our policies will be disapproved…

Two weeks ago, we headed up to San Francisco to participate in the Search Engine Strategies conference. Over two days, our AdWords and DoubleClick representatives were able to share, listen, and learn with several hundred of you. For those unable to attend, here’s a summary of some of the recent innovations we highlighted at the show, and a few photos from our booth on the expo floor.

The AdWords team took the stage to share some of our latest Ad Innovations with the SES audience…

We’re excited to announce a new metric in AdWords, top of page bid estimates, to provide additional assistance in optimizing your ads to show above the search results. Analogous to first page bid estimates, this metric approximates the cost-per-click (CPC) bid needed for your ad to appear regularly in the top positions above the search results.
This feature compliments the new “Top vs. side” report segment, which allows you to see how your ads perform above and to the side of Google search results…

Are you looking to infuse new life into your marketing strategy? If so, we’d like to tell you more about Google Affiliate Network, a powerful platform that gives you access to trusted affiliate publishers who actively promote your products and drive high-quality traffic to your site. Best of all, you only pay for valid conversions.

What is affiliate marketing?

Over one third of global marketers use affiliate marketing as a key component of their online marketing strategy…

Today, we’re excited to announce Adwords Editor 9.5! This version supports Campaign Experiments, Location Extensions, and plenty of other features to boost your productivity while managing your AdWords campaigns. We’ve highlighted the key changes below, and you can see the complete list of feature updates in the AdWords Editor Version 9.5 release notes.

AdWords Editor Version 9…

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)
In June we launched the +1 button for websites, making it easier to recommend content across the web. In July, the +1 button crossed 2 billion daily views, and we also made it a lot faster. Today the +1 button appears on more than a million sites, with over 4 billion daily views, and we’re extremely excited about this momentum.

It’s just the beginning, however, and today we’re launching two more features that make +1 buttons more useful for users and publishers alike…

(Cross posted on the Google Small Business Blog)
School is back in session and here at Google, we’ve been looking for ways to help you learn how to grow your business online. Many of you have been looking for one central place to go to get smart about online tools and strategies, and we hear you. That’s why we’re pleased to introduce Learn with Google, a new educational site designed to be a one-stop shop for businesses to learn about Google products and services like AdWords, Google Apps, Places, Analytics, and more…

Today, we’re announcing a small update to ValueTrack, a feature for those of you who use third-party tracking software or have access to your web logs. With the new additional ValueTrack parameter we’ve recently added, {adposition}, you can now see the position on the page that your ad appeared in.

Starting now, your destination URL can include the {adposition} parameter. The {adposition} parameter works for search campaigns and google…

Evaluating the success of display campaigns can be an exercise in relativity. You gauge current campaigns against past performance or compare across multiple campaigns and advertisers within your roster of brands or clients.

But in seeking more comprehensive benchmarks that reflect trends going on in the display industry, you might find yourself falling short. Advertisers and agencies alike are looking for more data to answer the basic questions of “How do I know if my display ad campaigns are doing well?” and “Are there credible benchmarks can I use to compare the results on my current campaign?”

It’s no surprise then that our display benchmarks have met with much enthusiasm since we first started publishing the data in 2009…

Advertisers often wonder whether search ads cannibalize their organic traffic. If search ads were paused, would clicks on organic results increase and make up for the loss in paid traffic? Google statisticians recently ran over 400 studies on paused accounts to answer this question.

In what we call “Search Ads Pause Studies,” our group of researchers observed organic click volume in the absence of search ads…