AdWords specialists Nina Cruz, Leslie O’Bray and Kaylyn Frazier hosted a Hangout on Air yesterday about the new Upgrade Center. Nina and Leslie demonstrate how to use the upgrade center to quickly and easily upgrade and/or merge your legacy campaigns. Starting on July 22, 2013, we will begin automatically upgrading all campaigns to enhanced.
Our specialists navigate through their AdWords accounts so you can see exactly what the interface looks like when making bulk upgrades and merges. They also demonstrate how to review changes before submitting the final upgrade.
You can view the full Hangout on the Google Business YouTube channel.
Stay tuned for our upcoming Google Analytics series, which will be held every other Thursday at 11 AM PST!
Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Hangout on Air: Roundtable with AdWords Community Top Contributors
Courtney Pannell and Alys Donnelly from the AdWords team hosted a Hangout on Air yesterday with Tommy Sands and Moshe Avichai — two Top Contributors from the AdWords Community.
During the roundtable discussion, Tommy and Moshe gave their advice on best practices for creating effective ads, using tools in the AdWords interface, measuring ad performance, and much more.
Watch the full 35-minute Hangout on Air below, or, visit the Google Business YouTube channel.
To learn more about how to get started with AdWords, visit our Help Center, check out the AdWords Community, or call us at 866-2-GOOGLE if you already have an AdWords account.
And remember to stay tuned for upcoming Hangouts on Air!
During the roundtable discussion, Tommy and Moshe gave their advice on best practices for creating effective ads, using tools in the AdWords interface, measuring ad performance, and much more.
Watch the full 35-minute Hangout on Air below, or, visit the Google Business YouTube channel.
To learn more about how to get started with AdWords, visit our Help Center, check out the AdWords Community, or call us at 866-2-GOOGLE if you already have an AdWords account.
And remember to stay tuned for upcoming Hangouts on Air!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Explore the Future of Digital Marketing with Google and Industry Executives on June 4th
On Tuesday, June 4th we’ll host our annual digital leadership summit, thinkDoubleClick, with provocative conversations about the future of digital marketing and media, and you’re invited to join via live stream by registering here!
- How do creatives leverage, but not be overwhelmed by, technology to deliver next-generation consumer experiences?
- What unique experiences are publishers developing that add value to consumers and advertisers alike?
- How do CMOs best use social with other marketing channels to build strong brands?
The full agenda for the thinkDoubleClick event is listed below. You can join in the conversation on June 4 by using the #thinkDCLK hash and commenting during the live stream at www.youtube.com/doubleclick.
June 4, 2013
9 am - 12:15 PDT
9:00 - 9:30 am | Connecting Digital, Accelerating Growth |
9:30 - 10:00 am | The Coca-Cola Company's Liquid & Linked Marketing: How a 127-year-old company is pivoting for success in a real-time, socially-connected world The Coca-Cola Company sells over 500 brands in 207 countries, with over 700,000 System associates and 1.8B+ servings of their beverages everyday. Hear insights and lessons learned on how the world's most valuable brand is remaining relevant by becoming more connected, transparent and nimble in real-time. |
10:00 - 10:35 am | Advertisers Must be Inventors This year, Volkswagen and Deutsch LA partnered with Google to work on a briefto re-imagine how to build a stronger, bigger community around its brand. In today’s connected world, telling stories alone isn’t enough; we need to create tangible value and utility to bring the brand’s promise to life. In this session the creative team from Deutsch LA will be talking about the process for developing more rewarding and shareable experience. |
10:35 - 11:15 am | Time to Rethink the Marketing Mix? Emerging trends in digital marketing -- including new ad formats, the rise of social media, and proliferation of channels -- are creating new challenges and opportunities for brand marketers. What are the key trends marketers should be concerned about -- and how should they respond? AdAge deputy editor Michael Learmonth poses the hard questions in an executive dialogue on what’s next for brand marketing. Fireside chat with: |
11:15 am - 12: 15 pm | New and Native: Extending the Conversation Technology has had a profound impact on the media industry. This disruption, though, has brought along significant opportunities for creative publishers to thrive. In this session we’re bringing in three executives to show how they’ve leveraged the digital revolution to deliver more engaging content and differentiated solutions to advertisers. |
We look forward to seeing you on June 4th at thinkDoubleClick.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Spruce up your business for spring
Springtime is in full swing; can you feel it? In the grand tradition of spring cleaning, we’ve got a few ideas for freshening up your business online. We believe that a tidy online presence can go a long way in kicking off a season of growth for your business.
Tidy up your website
Does your business have a website? If not, check out our Help Desk Hangout with Get Your Business Online to get started on the web. If you’ve already got a website, do a quick check to make sure your contact details, like business name, phone number, and address are accurate and current. You might also update seasonal hours, if it’s relevant for your business, or refresh the branding for your business if it’s changed recently.
Extra Credit: Learn about analytics and to measure and grow your website’s success.
Dust off those social channels
Are you connecting with customers and potential customers online? It’s easy to do so using social media, and we’ve got some Google+ tips to help you get started. You can post updates about your business easily or engage in conversations with customers. If you’re already set up with social media, it might be a good time to check your channels to make sure you’ve posted recently. If not, check in with those communities.
Extra Credit: You can learn how to use Google to measure social performance by watching our webinar, Social that Adds Up.
Clean up the Google listing for your business
Are you using Google Places for Business to manage the listing for your business on Google Maps? If not, you should become a verified business owner. This will allow you to manage the listing on Google Maps for your business and update it as needed. We’ve got some tips to help make sure the listing stays healthy, too.
Extra Credit: If you spot inaccuracies on a page, click on Report a problem on the right hand side of the page to let us know.
 |
| First day of spring Google Doodle |
Tidy up your website
Does your business have a website? If not, check out our Help Desk Hangout with Get Your Business Online to get started on the web. If you’ve already got a website, do a quick check to make sure your contact details, like business name, phone number, and address are accurate and current. You might also update seasonal hours, if it’s relevant for your business, or refresh the branding for your business if it’s changed recently.
Extra Credit: Learn about analytics and to measure and grow your website’s success.
Dust off those social channels
Are you connecting with customers and potential customers online? It’s easy to do so using social media, and we’ve got some Google+ tips to help you get started. You can post updates about your business easily or engage in conversations with customers. If you’re already set up with social media, it might be a good time to check your channels to make sure you’ve posted recently. If not, check in with those communities.
Extra Credit: You can learn how to use Google to measure social performance by watching our webinar, Social that Adds Up.
Clean up the Google listing for your business
Are you using Google Places for Business to manage the listing for your business on Google Maps? If not, you should become a verified business owner. This will allow you to manage the listing on Google Maps for your business and update it as needed. We’ve got some tips to help make sure the listing stays healthy, too.
Extra Credit: If you spot inaccuracies on a page, click on Report a problem on the right hand side of the page to let us know.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
A fresh look for AdWords Express
Cross-posted with Inside AdWords.
Today, when you log into AdWords Express, you’ll notice a brand new look. We’ve listened to your feedback and worked with a lot of small businesses to streamline the AdWords Express experience. It’s part of our ongoing efforts to make Google products more beautiful and efficient.
Clearer stats and reporting graphs
Small business owners have told us that they’re busy and that they don’t want to spend time looking for the information they need. We redesigned the dashboard to show you at a glance how many views, clicks and calls your ad has generated. There’s a simple pie chart for tracking your monthly spending, and you can also compare results over time with the new performance graph.
A faster, simpler signup
We’ve made some significant improvements to the signup experience. Now there are just 3 steps to start advertising: select your audience, create your ad, and select your budget. Getting your ad set up shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
Real-time ad previews
With the new real-time ad preview box, you can now see your ad created right as you type. Just hover over the icons to preview all the ad formats that are available based on the text you provide. Try it out by creating an ad at google.com/adwords/express.
We’re constantly working to improve the AdWords Express user experience to make it easier for small businesses to get their ads online. Keep the feedback coming!
Today, when you log into AdWords Express, you’ll notice a brand new look. We’ve listened to your feedback and worked with a lot of small businesses to streamline the AdWords Express experience. It’s part of our ongoing efforts to make Google products more beautiful and efficient.
Clearer stats and reporting graphs
Small business owners have told us that they’re busy and that they don’t want to spend time looking for the information they need. We redesigned the dashboard to show you at a glance how many views, clicks and calls your ad has generated. There’s a simple pie chart for tracking your monthly spending, and you can also compare results over time with the new performance graph.
A faster, simpler signup
We’ve made some significant improvements to the signup experience. Now there are just 3 steps to start advertising: select your audience, create your ad, and select your budget. Getting your ad set up shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
Real-time ad previews
With the new real-time ad preview box, you can now see your ad created right as you type. Just hover over the icons to preview all the ad formats that are available based on the text you provide. Try it out by creating an ad at google.com/adwords/express.
We’re constantly working to improve the AdWords Express user experience to make it easier for small businesses to get their ads online. Keep the feedback coming!
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Local businesses get new rating system
People across the world use Google to find the freshest coffee, friendliest service, and fastest delivery. With today’s launch of the new Google Maps, we’re making it easier than ever to choose the right places to eat, drink, shop and play.
Users who opt-in to the new Google Maps will now rate businesses on a scale that ranges from one to five stars. The system maintains the precision of the former 30 point scale while improving the readability and accessibility of the business listings. Your customers will be able to find up-to-date, accurate information on your business faster than ever. As a business owner, you’ll notice that past ratings have been mapped to the five star system.
These updates will continue to roll out on Google Maps, Google Maps for Mobile, Google search results and Google+ Local in upcoming months. Zagat reviews are still available throughout Google, and you’ll continue to see Zagat throughout Google products with editorial reviews and curated lists awarded to notable places
For more information on the score changes, join us on the Google and Your Business Forum.
Users who opt-in to the new Google Maps will now rate businesses on a scale that ranges from one to five stars. The system maintains the precision of the former 30 point scale while improving the readability and accessibility of the business listings. Your customers will be able to find up-to-date, accurate information on your business faster than ever. As a business owner, you’ll notice that past ratings have been mapped to the five star system.
These updates will continue to roll out on Google Maps, Google Maps for Mobile, Google search results and Google+ Local in upcoming months. Zagat reviews are still available throughout Google, and you’ll continue to see Zagat throughout Google products with editorial reviews and curated lists awarded to notable places
For more information on the score changes, join us on the Google and Your Business Forum.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Bringing it all together for Google Apps customers: 30GB shared between Drive and Gmail
Cross-posted with the Google Enterprise blog
Life gets a bit easier when your Google Apps products work well together -- whether that’s inserting a Drive file into an email or sharing Docs and photos from Drive on Google+. As that experience becomes seamless, having separate storage doesn’t make as much sense anymore. So over the coming weeks, you’ll get 30 GB of unified storage to use as you like between Drive and Gmail. Just as before, files created in Docs, Sheets and Slides don't count against your storage quota. Storage will also be shared with photos you upload to Google+ larger than 2048px.
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With this new combined storage, you can use your storage how you need to. If your business or school is like most, you know how many important emails and attachments you receive every day. As a result of today’s storage change, Gmail inboxes for Google Apps customers are no longer limited to 25 GB -- any additional storage you purchase can be shared and used by Gmail. Or alternatively, if you’re only using a few gigabytes of email storage, but have a lot of large documents and files stored in Google Drive, you can now use your storage primarily for Drive.
If you want to know how you are using your storage, check out our recently updated Google Drive storage page. Simply hover over the pie chart to see a breakdown of how your storage is being used across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos.
This update will roll out to Rapid Release domains over the coming weeks.
Life gets a bit easier when your Google Apps products work well together -- whether that’s inserting a Drive file into an email or sharing Docs and photos from Drive on Google+. As that experience becomes seamless, having separate storage doesn’t make as much sense anymore. So over the coming weeks, you’ll get 30 GB of unified storage to use as you like between Drive and Gmail. Just as before, files created in Docs, Sheets and Slides don't count against your storage quota. Storage will also be shared with photos you upload to Google+ larger than 2048px.
.png)
With this new combined storage, you can use your storage how you need to. If your business or school is like most, you know how many important emails and attachments you receive every day. As a result of today’s storage change, Gmail inboxes for Google Apps customers are no longer limited to 25 GB -- any additional storage you purchase can be shared and used by Gmail. Or alternatively, if you’re only using a few gigabytes of email storage, but have a lot of large documents and files stored in Google Drive, you can now use your storage primarily for Drive.
If you want to know how you are using your storage, check out our recently updated Google Drive storage page. Simply hover over the pie chart to see a breakdown of how your storage is being used across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos.
This update will roll out to Rapid Release domains over the coming weeks.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Hangout on Air: Ad Disapprovals and Review Process
AdWords Specialists Joe Abernethy, Alec Fox, and Kaylyn Frazier hosted a Hangout on Air yesterday about Ad Disapprovals and the Ad Review Process.
To watch the full 20-minute Hangout on Air, visit the Google Business YouTube channel here.
After sharing some interesting, Googley facts about themselves, Alec and Joe explain some of the top reasons for disapproved ads. Alec reminds us of the important policies regarding URLs in ads. Joe explains why we have editorial standards, and discusses guidelines for using symbols, punctuation and capitalization.
Alec and Joe use screen share to show us exactly where to re-submit ads that are disapproved, check on statuses of ads and view important policy details about ads in an AdWords account.
Take a look at the article on Editorial Standards that Kaylyn references in the Hangout.
To learn more about how to get started with AdWords, visit our Help Center, check out the AdWords Community forum, or call us at 866-2-GOOGLE if you already have an AdWords account.
And remember to stay tuned for upcoming Hangouts on Air!
To watch the full 20-minute Hangout on Air, visit the Google Business YouTube channel here.
After sharing some interesting, Googley facts about themselves, Alec and Joe explain some of the top reasons for disapproved ads. Alec reminds us of the important policies regarding URLs in ads. Joe explains why we have editorial standards, and discusses guidelines for using symbols, punctuation and capitalization.
Alec and Joe use screen share to show us exactly where to re-submit ads that are disapproved, check on statuses of ads and view important policy details about ads in an AdWords account.
Take a look at the article on Editorial Standards that Kaylyn references in the Hangout.
To learn more about how to get started with AdWords, visit our Help Center, check out the AdWords Community forum, or call us at 866-2-GOOGLE if you already have an AdWords account.
And remember to stay tuned for upcoming Hangouts on Air!
Thursday, May 2, 2013
New Learn with Google Webinars to Help you Become a Smarter Digital Marketer
At Google, one of our goals is to help make the web work for you. Today we’re announcing a new series of Learn with Google webinars, which will teach you how to use digital to build brand awareness and give you the tools you need to drive sales and grow loyalty and retention. Each of our sessions gives you deep-dive educational content, across a breadth of products and marketing objectives, in a format that’s convenient for you. Every webinar is led by Google product experts and includes time for audience Q&A. Sign up to start becoming a smarter digital marketer now.
Upcoming live webinars:
May
[YouTube] Driving Direct Response with Video
[Shopping] Google Shopping 101: Google Shopping for Beginners
[Research] New Research: How US Shoppers use Smartphones in Stores
[Mobile] Driving Deeper Engagement with your App Users
[Mobile] Driving Brand Engagement with Mobile Rich Media
[Analytics] Measuring Success in a Multi-Device World
June
[Mobile] Understanding Mobile Ads Across Marketing Objectives
[Shopping] Google Shopping 201: Merchant Center Deep Dive
[YouTube] Building your Business with YouTube Video Ads
[Analytics] Metrics for the Mobile App Ecosystem
[Search] What's New & Next in AdWords
[Analytics] Unleashing the Combined Power of Google Analytics & AdWords
[Social] Growing your Business & Engaging your Audience with Google+
[Shopping] Google Shopping 301: Creating & Optimizing Product Listing Ads
[Social] Launching & Amplifying your Impact Across Social Channels
[Display] Reaching the Right Audience with Remarketing
[Research] Creating Custom Infographics with the New Google Databoard
Webinars are held Tuesdays through Thursdays at 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern.
Visit our webinar site to register for any of the live sessions and to access our large library of recorded content. You can also stay up-to-date on the schedule by adding our Learn with Google calendar to your own Google calendar to automatically see upcoming webinars.
During our last series of webinars, attendees had the chance to win a Nexus 7. Clint Wilson was our lucky winner and he’ll soon be enjoying all of the tablet’s cool features. Check out our upcoming webinars for another chance to win!
Learn with Google is a program to help businesses succeed through winning moments that matter, enabling better decisions and constantly innovating. We hope that you’ll use these best practices and how-to’s to maximize the impact of digital and grow your business. We’re looking forward to seeing you at an upcoming session!
Upcoming live webinars:
May
[YouTube] Driving Direct Response with Video
[Shopping] Google Shopping 101: Google Shopping for Beginners
[Research] New Research: How US Shoppers use Smartphones in Stores
[Mobile] Driving Deeper Engagement with your App Users
[Mobile] Driving Brand Engagement with Mobile Rich Media
[Analytics] Measuring Success in a Multi-Device World
June
[Mobile] Understanding Mobile Ads Across Marketing Objectives
[Shopping] Google Shopping 201: Merchant Center Deep Dive
[YouTube] Building your Business with YouTube Video Ads
[Analytics] Metrics for the Mobile App Ecosystem
[Search] What's New & Next in AdWords
[Analytics] Unleashing the Combined Power of Google Analytics & AdWords
[Social] Growing your Business & Engaging your Audience with Google+
[Shopping] Google Shopping 301: Creating & Optimizing Product Listing Ads
[Social] Launching & Amplifying your Impact Across Social Channels
[Display] Reaching the Right Audience with Remarketing
[Research] Creating Custom Infographics with the New Google Databoard
Webinars are held Tuesdays through Thursdays at 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern.
Visit our webinar site to register for any of the live sessions and to access our large library of recorded content. You can also stay up-to-date on the schedule by adding our Learn with Google calendar to your own Google calendar to automatically see upcoming webinars.
During our last series of webinars, attendees had the chance to win a Nexus 7. Clint Wilson was our lucky winner and he’ll soon be enjoying all of the tablet’s cool features. Check out our upcoming webinars for another chance to win!
Learn with Google is a program to help businesses succeed through winning moments that matter, enabling better decisions and constantly innovating. We hope that you’ll use these best practices and how-to’s to maximize the impact of digital and grow your business. We’re looking forward to seeing you at an upcoming session!