• Shopping ads help retailers and brands connect with shoppers whether they’re at home, on the go or in the store. Starting today, Comparison Shopping Services have a new opportunity to use Shopping ads to advertise on Google.com in EEA countries1 and Switzerland on behalf of retailers they represent. Google Shopping in these countries will operate in the same manner, bidding alongside Comparison Shopping Services on equal terms. If you run a Comparison Shopping Service and are interested in learning more, visit our help center.

    European retailers of all sizes will still be able to reach consumers using the same Google Shopping tools and insights they use today. And as shopping intent begins to rise for the holiday season, we'll keep launching new innovations that make Shopping ads work even better for everyone.

    Posted by Oliver Heckmann, VP Engineering


    1. Comparison Shopping Services in EEA countries where Shopping ads are available: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland , United Kingdom.

  • As you may have heard, we'll be moving all AdWords app install campaigns to Universal App Campaigns (UAC) later this year.With UAC, you can reach the right people across all of Google’s largest properties like Google Search, Google Play, YouTube and th...

  • We look at our phones while we watch TV. We watch TV on our phones while we walk to work. We work on our laptops while we cast video to a set-top box. We spend the majority of our days connected, often via multiple devices—so much so that reach has become a commodity in advertising. And while reach is plentiful, attention is scarce.

    Unless we’re talking about online video. Our latest research with Ipsos suggests people are 3x more likely to pay attention to online video ads vs. television ads.1 And within online video, people pay nearly 2x more attention to video ads on YouTube than they do on other social media.2 That’s because on YouTube, ads are more likely to be seen and people are more likely to arrive with intent to watch video—2X more likely than other online platforms.3 Today we’re sharing four new tools to help you capture the attention of your audience on YouTube:


    1) Helping brands reach the right audiences

    Intention is what has made search advertising so effective—the ability to quickly connect people looking for something they want or need, with a business that offers just that. Since January we’ve seen that what’s worked great for search works great for video as well. We found that campaigns that use intent-based audiences on mobile have 20% higher ad recall lift and 50% higher brand awareness lift relative to campaigns that only use demographic audiences.4

    In order to help you deliver more relevant, useful ads on YouTube, we're expanding the ways you can use Google's broad ecosystem using Custom Affinity Audiences to reach people based on the kind of searches they do, or the kind of places and apps they like. That means an outdoor outfitter could use Custom Affinity audiences to potentially reach people who have searched for skis, spent time at ski resorts, or have downloaded a ski resort’s trail guide app.


    2) Enabling custom creative at scale

    Custom audiences are most valuable when paired with creative that is relevant to them. But personalization at scale can be difficult—new video creative is pricey and takes time to make.

    We're launching Director Mix to simplify the process of creating different versions of the same creative tailored for each audience—you give us the building blocks of your video ad, like different voiceovers, background and copy, and our system will create thousands of versions to match your various audience segments.

    Campbell’s Soup used Director Mix to create videos with clever copy based on the content people were about to watch. For instance if you clicked to watch clips from Orange is the New Black, you’d see a bumper asking “does your cooking make prison food seem good? We've got a soup for that.” And it worked: Campbell’s earned a 55% lift in sales and a 24% lift in ad recall with this campaign.


    3) Telling a story that breaks free of a single unit

    Similarly, we’re introducing Video Ad Sequencing to help you architect an ad experience that unfolds over time. This new feature in AdWords Labs lets you string together ad creative. You can pivot, you can react—and you can take consumers down a different path depending on which ads are working for them.

    For instance, you could start with a fifteen-second TrueView ad to build awareness, continue with another, longer spot that communicates product attributes, then follow with a six-second bumper ad to keep top-of-mind and drive to purchase.

    To drum up excitement for their new Assassin’s Creed game, Ubisoft cut four sequential six-second bumper ads, each with a critical element of their longer trailer. The brand used Affinity Audiences and Video Ad Sequencing to serve the ads to core E3 audiences. The campaign reached almost 15 million unique viewers and resulted in best-in-class lifts in awareness (+25%), search lift for ‘Assassin’s Creed’ (+224%) and search lift for the Assassin’s Creed trailer (+375%).


    4) Measuring the impact – New ways to measure sales lift

    And finally, you need a way to measure that you earned attention—and one way to do that is to look at its effect on offline sales.

    We’re rolling out a new, global approach to measuring sales lift with Nielsen MPA (Matched Panel Analysis). This geo-based solution offers a fast, media-agnostic way to determine which online ads drive offline sales. With this implementation of Nielsen MPA, CPG clients can measure video alongside other Google media.

    From looking at the Nielsen MPA studies we’ve run to-date, we found that YouTube drove sales lift for the advertised product in 14 of 19 studies globally.5

    We’ve also expanded our Oracle Datalogix ROI offering in the US to include six-second bumper ads so that brands can more comprehensively measure their YouTube campaigns. And we’ll continue working to deliver more solutions to complement our Nielsen MPA, Oracle DLX ROI, MMM and store visit offerings today, so you’ll have the measurement that works best for your business.

    At YouTube, our aim is to show ads that are relevant and useful, so that instead of interrupting people’s viewing experiences, you’re enhancing them. This means matching what advertisers have to offer with what people are interested in—leading to a better YouTube experience backed up by comprehensive user controls. We hope you try out these new features as they become available, and hope to see you at Advertising Week.

    Posted by Diya Jolly, Director Product Management, YouTube & Video Monetization


    1. Source: Google/Ipsos, Video Mobile Diary, US, 2017, n of 4,381 (saw ads occasions). Online video includes video platforms such as YouTube & Hulu, social platforms such as Facebook & Snapchat and TV Full Episode Players like NBC.com.
    2. Source: Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience, Video Ad Cross-Platform Biometrics Research commissioned by Google. Conducted in the US using 8 advertisements, 4 platforms and 400 participants, 18-35 year olds, Nielsen CNS Lab, Boston, US 2016
    3. Source: Google/Ipsos, Video Mobile Diary, US, 2017 (n of 18,219 total video occasions)
    4. Source: Google Brand Lift Targeting Analysis October 2016 - March 2017, Global, Smartphone, numbers shown represent relative difference between additive lifts of intent targeted and demo targeted campaigns, i.e. the former had Brand Awareness lift 1.5x the latter.
    5. Source: Commissioned Nielsen Matched Panel Analysis – 19 studies on YouTube from 2016-2017 across 6 countries; Lift based on at least one of multiple tested strategies with significance >80%

  • When people want dedicated service or to get specific questions answered, they often pick up the phone to speak to a real person. Advertisers also drive more value from having these direct conversations with customers - on average, calls convert three times better than web clicks.

    Hundreds of thousands of advertisers are already using call-only ads to generate more phone calls from mobile search. We are now introducing upgrades to call-only ads, starting with the launch of ad extensions. For the first time, you’ll be able to show ad extensions with call-only ads to promote more relevant information about your products and services, and give people more reasons to choose your business. In early experiments, we’ve found that implementing new extensions to call-only ads can improve clickthrough rate by 10% on average.


    Introducing ad extensions for call-only ads

    The following extensions for call-only ads will begin rolling out to all advertisers starting today:

    • Location extensions - highlight information about your nearby business locations for customers who want to visit your store in person.
    • Callout extensions - promote unique offers and benefits, such as 24-hour call center service.
    • Structured snippets - provide more specific details about your products and services using predefined headers like “Destinations” and “ Types”. For example, a rental car company might list various car classes like sedans, hybrids and SUVs.

    Advertisers and agencies like Hertz, Vortex Industries and DexYP will be taking advantage of extensions to enhance their call-only ads with additional details and improve their visibility in search results.


    “Calls help us effectively engage an increasingly mobile-first audience. They also drive better conversion rates compared to mobile text ads that take customers to our site. With new ad extensions for call-only ads, we hope to improve our CTR and call volume by taking up more real estate in search results, and showing customers additional relevant information like different car classes and ancillary product options.”
    - Jeremy Venlet, Director- Digital Operations and Performance, Hertz

    “Choosing the right partner for commercial door repair is an important decision for any business, which is why we offer extensive service and support over the phone to help guide our customers to book on-site appointments with our expertly trained technicians. Partnering with our digital agency, YPM, Inc. we've made call-only campaigns a big part of our digital strategy since phone calls are so important to our business. Making ad extensions available with call-only ads is huge step forward because they'll allow us to go beyond the standard description text in ad copy to showcase our unique value propositions, such as prompt and efficient service, and a proven track record of delivering results for our customers.”
    - Stacey Muto, Marketing Director, Vortex Industries, Inc.


    “DexYP partners with hundreds of thousands of local businesses to sustain and grow their customer base through online marketing channels. For many of these clients, driving leads and sales from phone calls is their top performance goal. For those that utilize Search Engine Marketing, call-only campaigns have been instrumental to helping these businesses generate more calls from mobile search, where more and more consumers are looking to connect with local businesses each year. We're incredibly excited to further improve our clients’ campaigns by adding new ad extensions. For example, the enhancement with location extensions will help further promote businesses who can assist customers over the phone, or at a nearby store location. Providing more relevant details in call-only ads will help them stand out more in search results and give users more reasons to call.”
    - Brandon Hulme, Sr. Product Manager, SEM Products and Platforms, DexYP

    If you already have location, callout, or structured snippet extensions set up at the account-level, you don’t need to take any extra steps - the extensions will automatically be eligible to appear with your call-only ads. You can also tailor the messaging on your extensions at the campaign-level to help them work better with call-only ads. For example, highlight your fast call center service or offer a special discount when customers book an appointment over the phone for the same week.

    To learn more about call-only ads, visit the Help Center and check out best practices for driving more calls to your business.

    Posted by Manas Mittal, Product Manager, Mobile Search Ads

  • High quality product information is the foundation for connecting retailers with the most qualified customers on Google Shopping. Luckily, getting your product data in shape has never been easier with new Merchant Center tools. The new feeds experience and Opportunities are here just in time for you to win this holiday season.


    Add or override product data with supplemental feeds

    Previously, your product data could only be submitted in one primary feed. Now, supplemental feeds give you the flexibility of submitting and modifying your product data from multiple sources. You can use them to add or override attributes and values in your primary feed. For example:

    • Add holiday custom labels or promotion ids to products in your primary feed through a supplemental feed
    • Replace attribute values in your primary feed with new values from your supplemental feed


    Take your products global with a single multi-country feed

    With Shopping available in 37 countries, don’t miss the opportunity to bring your products to new global customers. Simply add new countries with the same language to your primary feed and your prices will automatically show in the correct currency of the user. You can also reach new countries with different languages by applying Feed Rules to pull language-dependent values from a supplemental feed, like title and description. Now’s the time to add international expansion to your holiday plans.


    Farfetch, a luxury fashion retailer, was able to quickly and easily extend their global footprint:

    "The new feed management features in Merchant Center are an amazing solution. With the ability to create multi-country feeds, we easily launched Shopping campaigns in 6 more markets across 2 continents that now represent 29% of our traffic coming from Search in those countries. Our expansion would have been slower and more costly without this feature." - Martin Zirfas, Performance Marketing Executive


    Modify your product data from the Content API with Feed Rules

    The power of Feed Rules is now available for product data provided through the Content API. This means that you can easily make product updates without having to change your feed directly. For example, you can:

    • Apply custom labels based on other values
    • Complete shipping values based on product weight values
    • Append strong brand values to the beginning of product title values


    Look out for additional updates as more functionality is added to Feed Rules.


    Drive more clicks with Opportunities

    Get a better idea of the potential results and effort needed to improve your product data or campaigns in the Opportunities tab. A card will appear if there’s enough information to surface an opportunity. From minor adjustments to important feed fixes, each card pulls in dynamic information to help you prioritize your resources and drive more clicks to your account. Initial cards will show on a limited basis and focus on improving your product data quality. But, this is only the beginning -- expect more opportunity types in the future. Check the Opportunities tab regularly as it's constantly working in the background to spot opportunities for you. And, make it a goal to address any high-value opportunities before heading into the holidays.



    Keep your entire team informed of your Merchant Center account

    The days of setting one primary contact and one technical contact are over. You can add multiple team members as either Admin or Standard users to your Merchant Center account. Each user can manage their own email preferences to opt into important news and notifications, including feed alerts, tips and best practices, and beta opportunities. You can also specify email-only users, who will receive communications but can’t log into your account. Before the holiday season, keep your team in the loop by adding them to your Merchant Center account.

    Ready to get started?

    Learn more about the new feeds experience and Opportunities on Merchant Center Help Center. Or, log in to Merchant Center to explore the new features.

    Posted by Raphael Leiteritz, Director of Product Management, Google Shopping

  • Every business has its own unique set of reporting needs -- from determining which keywords drive the most website traffic to understanding the top performing mobile search ads over time. Having a consolidated, and comprehensive view of how your account is doing helps you spend less time creating reports, and more time identifying new opportunities. That's why over the next several weeks, we’re rolling out dashboards: a single place in AdWords* where you can bring together your most important reports and unearth insights about your business.






    Create a customized view of your data


    Dashboards gives you the flexibility to arrange your tables and charts in a way that’s most meaningful to you. You can add existing saved tables and charts to your dashboard, or create new ones on the spot. Curious about how your campaigns performed last summer? As you can see in the image above, you can quickly select any date range to see how your dashboard looked during that period.

    Monitor performance in one place


    You no longer have to navigate back and forth across different tabs and reports to get a comprehensive view of account performance. Instead, you now have all your important tables and charts in one place. You can easily see your impressions and CTRs by device right next to clicks by device as shown in the image above. This helps you to better understand the relationships between your data, and easily identify patterns and trends. There’s always a performance improvement opportunity waiting to be discovered, and dashboards allows you to quickly identify them and take action.


    Collaborate and share with your team


    If you work with multiple people on the same AdWords account, you can now build and review dashboards together. All dashboards in an account are conveniently listed in the Reports tab for seamless collaboration.


    Create your first dashboard


    To help get you started, we’ve provided a starter dashboard as an example of what’s possible. You can choose to build off of this dashboard, modify it to your needs, or delete it and create your own.

    Creating dashboards in AdWords is simple. Just click Reports at the top of your account, click the Dashboards tab, and then + Dashboard.

    To create your first dashboard, take our guided tour. You can also learn more about dashboards in the AdWords Help Center.

    Posted by Jon Diorio, Group Product Manager, AdWords

    *Dasbhoards are available in both the previous and new AdWords experience.