New Reports: AdWords Search Funnels

In order to help you make more informed decisions about your AdWords keywords, ad groups, and campaigns, we're excited to release a new set of reports for your AdWords account: AdWords Search Funnels (beta). Currently, conversions in AdWords are attributed to the last ad someone clicks before making a conversion, masking the fact that many customers perform multiple searches before finally converting. AdWords Search Funnels help you see the full picture by giving you insight into the ads your customers interact with during their shopping process.

What are AdWords Search Funnels?

AdWords Search Funnels are a set of reports describing the ad click and impression behavior on Google.com that leads up to a conversion. In addition to a Top Conversions report, Search Funnels consist of 7 reports including Assisted Conversions, First and Last Click Analysis, Time Lag, and Path Length. For an overview of these new reports, check out this video:

Why are these useful?

"Search Funnel enables us to create a better experience for our customers by helping us understand how they search for our products," said Beth Hirschhorn, Chief Marketing Officer from MetLife, the largest life insurance company based in the United States. "It is an important tool to help de-code consumer shopping habits and thought processes, which we can relate back to our online as well as offline advertising."

By showing which ads your customers clicked on before ultimately converting, Search Funnels give a more complete picture of the value of your keywords, ad groups and campaigns. Let's look at a hypothetical example.

An online vacation service called Flyaway Vacations is running AdWords campaigns for vacation packages in Hawaii. Their ads link to a site where visitors can book any or all parts of a package that includes flights, a hotel, car rental, and surf lessons. Suppose that on March 10 someone searched for "hawaii vacation" and clicked on an ad for Flyaway's Hawaii package. A click was registered in their AdWords account. Then, two days later, the same person searched for "flights to hawaii" and saw another ad for Flyaway, but didn't click. An impression was registered in Flyaway's AdWords account. Finally, three days later, the same person searched one more time, this time for "flyaway hawaii." This time they clicked the ad, visited the site, and purchased the Hawaii vacation package.

(click for full-sized image)

Instead of showing only a purchase conversion for the "flyaway hawaii" keyword, Search Funnels will show an assist click for the keyword "hawaii vacation" and an assist impression for the keyword "flights to hawaii". Testing the value of assist clicks and impressions is important for evaluating and understanding the true value of all of your keywords.

Search Funnels not only help you understand the keywords seen by converters, they also show you those that weren't seen. For example, in the Flyaway campaign, it's possible that another keyword, such as "hawaii surf lessons," didn't contribute any assist clicks or impressions, or last click conversions, indicating that this may be a keyword that's providing little conversion value. Assist information is an additional data point you can use when making strategic budgeting decisions, from the campaign level down to the keyword level.

Search Funnels also show the "Path Length," or average number of clicks and impressions prior to conversion, which can help you understand and target repeat visitors. Additionally they show "Time Lag," or the amount of time it takes a customer to convert after seeing or clicking on your ads for the first time, which can help you determine lead time for seasonal campaigns. These breakdowns can help you understand your customers' behavior and create strategies around that information.

(click for full-sized image)

Over the next few weeks, the Search Funnels beta will be rolled out gradually to all accounts in the 'Conversions' section under the 'Reporting' tab. To activate them, you must either have AdWords Conversion Tracking running or import goals or transactions into AdWords from Google Analytics. Keep in mind that Search Funnels are only available in your AdWords account (not in Google Analytics), and will only show data for keywords that show up in at least one conversion path. Search Funnel data is currently limited to search ads showing on Google.com, for ad impressions and clicks within 30 days of the conversion.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

Streamlined analysis tools in your Campaigns tab

Over the last several months, we've been introducing new ways to analyze and segment your campaign data. As we continue to introduce more data types, we want to make sure that it's easy for you to access these reporting controls. That's why we've introduced a new analysis toolbar in the Campaigns tab of your account. This toolbar consolidates key functionality from the "Filter and views" and "More actions" menus, and appears at the top of each of your data tables:

(click for full size image)

You can use the toolbar to quickly apply a filter to the data you're viewing or customize the columns on each tab. You can also gain important insights into performance across different networks or time periods by using the "Segment" option:

(click for full size image)

Controls to show or hide paused or deleted campaigns and ad groups are also now available in this toolbar:

(click for full size image)

Just like the integration of the popular Search Query and Placement Performance Reports in the Campaigns tab, our hope is that this new toolbar will further streamline reporting and help you to get the most out of your AdWords data and your advertising campaigns.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords & Analytics Sessions at SES Chicago

Next week on December 7th and 8th, you can catch presentations by the Google AdWords team at SES Chicago. We'll be offering practical tips on how to quickly improve your search and display ads performance in the following sessions:

• What's New and Exciting with Google Analytics: the latest tools and reports from our Analytics platform.

• Getting the Most Out of AdWords Optimization Tools: improve your campaigns with recently added AdWords features like the Opportunities tab, new data segmentation options, and custom alerts.

• The Next Generation of AdWords Bidding: Conversion Optimizer: learn how the Conversion Optimizer tool can help you achieve double digit percentage increases in conversions without increasing the cost per conversion.

Finally, if you want to learn more about AdWords optimization tools, you can also watch a video walkthrough of the improvements we've made to AdWords this year. Ariel Bardin, the lead Product Manager for the AdWords web interface, will take you through the major new features and give you tips on managing your campaigns more efficiently.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords Conversion Tracking is now even easier

If you use AdWords Conversion Tracking, you may have noticed that the interface for this tool has been redesigned so that it's easier to implement, monitor, and troubleshoot.

(Click to see full size image)

There are now 3 easy-to-use tabs - Conversions, Webpages, and Code - that help you manage your conversion data. Let's take a closer look at each of them:

Conversions: This is where you see information about the conversion actions you're tracking.

• The "Tracking Status" column lets you know whether a conversion action is tracking properly. It shows you if a conversion has ever been recorded, if it has recently stopped recording, or if it's working just fine.
• The "Value" column shows the accumulated value of the conversions you've received based on the value you've assigned to each action.
• The "New Conversion" button allows you to easily create new conversion actions or import them from a linked Google Analytics account. (Note: In order to import Google Analytics goals, you'll first need to follow a few steps.)

(Click to see full size image)

Webpages: Here, you'll see which pages on your site are getting conversions. You can also see a breakdown of the number of conversions per page on your site. This is useful for troubleshooting, as you can make sure conversions are coming from the pages you expect and identify pages that are not reporting conversion activity.

Code: This is where you get the tracking code for each conversion action. You can also change the value of an action, which helps you calculate ROI.

If you're not currently using AdWords Conversion Tracking, now is a great time to start. Conversion Tracking gives you an accurate way to measure the success of your AdWords campaigns. You can learn more about the benefits and how to implement it here.

We hope you enjoy the new interface and happy optimizing!

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew

Import your Google Analytics Goals into AdWords and use them with Conversion Optimizer

In order to track your return on investment (ROI) from AdWords, you need to be able to see which keywords, ads and campaigns lead to conversions on your site. If you use Google Analytics, you can now import your Google Analytics Goals and Transactions into your AdWords account to use as conversion actions. This lets you track the ROI from your AdWords campaigns directly inside the AdWords interface. In the past, you needed to separately install AdWords Conversion Tracking to make use of this feature.

If you're new to Conversion Tracking, a "conversion" happens when a visitor to your site completes a desired action (such as making a purchase or requesting a quote). A conversion is very similar to the concept of a Goal or Transaction in Google Analytics, and is crucial to assessing the ROI from your online advertising spend.

One of the benefits of importing your Google Analytics Goals and Transactions into AdWords is that you can use them with the Conversion Optimizer, an AdWords CPA bidding tool that has been shown to help advertisers get more conversions from AdWords. Conversion Optimizer makes it a lot easier to manage your AdWords bidding and maximize results.

Here's how to get started importing your Google Analytics Goals and Transactions into AdWords:

Link your Accounts, Enable Sharing and Setup a Goal

First you need to link your Google Analytics and AdWords accounts and create at least one Google Analytics Goal or track at least on Google Analytics Transaction. You'll also need to enable data sharing in Google Analytics by completing the following steps.

1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account.
2. Click "Edit Account and Data Sharing Settings."
3. Make sure you've selected at least the "With other Google products only" options under "Share my Google Analytics data."
4. Click "Save Changes" to finish.

Import your Goals into AdWords

1. Navigate to the "Conversion Tracking" page from within your AdWords account.
2. Click "Link your Analytics goals and transactions" from the Conversion Tracking table.





(Click to view larger image)


3. Select the Goals or Transactions you want from the list.
4. Edit the action name so you can identify the goals in your AdWords reports.
5. Select "Link" from the bottom of the table to finish.

That's it! Your imported Goals and Transactions will show up in your account, along with AdWords conversion metrics. You can use this data to see which ads, keywords and campaigns are bringing in the best ROI and then optimize your campaigns based on this information.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Update: Analytics Webinar with Avinash Kaushik

A couple weeks ago we posted some upcoming Google webinars, and last week, Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, led a discussion on the 'Top 5 Things Marketers Can Do Now" in order to maximize ROI. We realize some of you may have missed the opportunity to hear Avinash speak, but may still be interested in the tips he was able to provide. As such, we've posted a recording of his talk onto the Google Brand Channel on YouTube.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

New Interface Thursdays: Tailor your account with customizable columns

Today on New Interface Thursdays we'll be taking a look at customizable columns. Customizable columns are one of the ways that new AdWords interface helps you manage your campaigns more effectively. With customizable columns, you can select which metrics are most important to your business, and then quickly view those metrics in your campaigns.

To get started, click on the Filter and views button in your account and select Customize columns.

From there you'll see a variety of columns that you can add or remove from your account.

(Click for larger image)

On the left hand side you'll see that the metrics are broken into two groups: Performance and Conv., which is short for Conversions. Keep in mind that you'll only see conversion columns if you've enabled AdWords Conversion Tracking in your AdWords account. You can select all the columns in a category by checking the box next to the category name.

While on the topic of conversion columns, let's go over the new conversion metrics. Last month, we announced an update to how AdWords reports conversions. Now, you can choose to see columns for many-per-click, 1-per-click conversions, or both. To get a better understanding of the new metrics you can read this article.

Getting back to the Customized Columns panel, let's take a look at the right side of the box, the Preview section. You'll notice some columns are gray and others are green. The gray columns are fixed, so they're always shown. The green columns are metrics you've selected to be shown. You can rearrange the order of these metrics by clicking and dragging them. This is great for setting up a side-by-side comparison for metrics like average cost-per-click and average position, for example.

One last thing to keep in mind is that columns vary across the different tabs in AdWords, depending on the metrics presented within each tab. For instance, you'll find a Quality Score column in the Keywords tab, but not in the Campaigns tab.

That's it for customizable columns. We hope you'll give this feature a try so that you can tailor your account and see only the information you want.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Improvements to Google Ad Planner data

Do you use Google Ad Planner to find websites for your display ad campaigns? If so, you'll be glad to know we launched the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center, a new feature that improves the quality and accuracy of the site data you see in Google Ad Planner.

The Publisher Center enables publishers to contribute directly to the site data provided in Google Ad Planner. Website owners can specify their site descriptions, content categories, supported ad formats and sizes, and share their Google Analytics traffic data in Google Ad Planner. With shared Google Analytics data, we can supplement our traffic estimates with actual, site-measured data from the publishers themselves. In turn, you'll have access to more robust and accurate information in Google Ad Planner to make better-informed decisions about which sites to include in your media plans.

Here's an example of a site profile you will see when the site owner updates information through the Publisher Center:

(Click the image for a full-size version)

We hope you'll take advantage of this improved Google Ad Planner data for your media planning activities. To get started, please visit www.google.com/adplanner.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Delay in updating campaign statistics

Starting this morning, we've had to perform some unexpected maintenance in AdWords. Due to this maintenance,  your statistics may be delayed up to 12 hours. This delay is temporary, and only your statistics will be affected. Your ads will continue to show as per your campaign settings.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this. Please check our known issues page for updates.

Update 3-5-2009:

All stats are now up-to-date.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Google Analytics and AdWords: Better Together

Regardless of the year or economic climate, it's always been important to optimize the return on your advertising investment--but now it's more important than ever. Google Analytics specializes in providing you with the metrics you need to make informed advertising decisions.

By linking your Google AdWords and Analytics accounts, you can optimize your AdWords investment even more effectively with increased trackability and customized reporting. Check out this short video and learn more about the benefits of linking your accounts.

To learn more about advertising more effectively with Analytics you can watch the "Google Analytics in 60 Seconds" videos - a series of videos that illustrate simple tips such as how to optimize keywords and how to use placement targeting.

Posted by Cynthia Benin, Inside AdWords crew

Delay in updating campaign statistics

Today, we have been experiencing delays in the reporting of your AdWords account statistics. This delay is temporary and does not affect the serving of your ads as per your campaign settings. 

We have been working hard to get this fixed, and at this time, click and cost statistics have been updated and show the correct numbers. Correct impression counts will follow soon. As a result of these reporting delays, your clickthrough rate (CTR) may show a higher than actual number until the impression counts are also updated. This delay in reporting is unrelated to the ads quality improvements that we wrote about on Monday. We regret any inconvenience that this may cause you and appreciate your patience as we work toward a resolution.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Quick tip: Increase traffic with the Impression Share report

Recently, the AdWords Help Forum started posting weekly tips to help advertisers improve their campaigns. This got us thinking... why not share the love with our blog readers? In this spirit, we'll periodically share some of these tips and tricks with you, covering everything from new tools to optimization strategies.

Today, we'll start with unlocking the mystery behind why certain campaigns have low search traffic. First, it's helpful to understand the impression share of your ads. Impression share is a metric that represents the percentage of impressions your ad received out of the total available impressions in the market you're targeting. The Impression Share report, available through the Report Center, gives you insight into how you stack up against others in your industry, helping you make more effective changes to your campaigns and boost traffic. 

With insight into potential traffic, you can make more informed decisions and get answers to question like:

• Do I have room to expand in my targeted market?
  
• Am I losing impressions due to low ad rank?
  
• Am I losing impressions due to a low budget?
  
• What's my impression share for the specific keywords I'm using?

Once you have an understanding of where you're missing out on potential traffic, the next step is improving your ads' impression share. So, before you start restructuring your whole account to increase traffic, get clued in by running an Impression Share report. 

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Conversion tracking Site Stats logo is now optional

If you currently use or have considered using AdWords conversion tracking, we have news that may be of interest to you. Conversion tracking users are no longer required to display the "Google Site Stats" logo on the conversion pages of their web sites.

Previously, a small but visible text block that read "Google Site Stats" automatically appeared on the page where the conversion tracking code was placed on your web site. The logo would appear only after a conversion occurred via your AdWords ad, and it provided converting visitors links to information about AdWords conversion tracking and instructions on how to block the tracking.

However, many advertisers have told us that the logo was redundant with their own privacy policy, where they already notify users about the tracking technologies in use on their sites. As a result, we're now giving you the option of not showing the Site Stats logo on the conversion page(s) of your site.

If you currently have conversion tracking tags installed on your web site, the Site Stats logo will continue to display unless you take further action. If you choose to remove the logo, please inform users about the tracking methods you employ on your site by modifying your site's privacy policy.

For those of you who are new to conversion tracking, it's a powerful tool that allows you to measure conversion metrics for your AdWords campaigns. An added benefit of using conversion tracking is that it allows you to use the Conversion Optimizer, a bidding feature that uses your conversion tracking data to optimize the performance of your campaigns, helping you make the most of your advertising dollars.

For more information about conversion tracking, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Google Analytics 101 (Part 4)

In this installment of Google Analytics 101, we'll take a brief look at another important statistic visible from the Dashboard: Traffic Sources. When you first set up your account and sign in, Analytics shows a Dashboard module containing a pie chart of all of your Traffic Sources. These sources include any that are unrelated to your AdWords advertising, as will be explained in this post. The pie chart is a breakdown of the different kinds of ways that traffic reaches your site. (If you don't see it right away in your Dashboard, just click on Traffic Sources in the left-hand navigation. It'll appear at the top of the report.)

(click the image to see a full-size version)

"Referring Sites" shows visits from people who clicked to your site from another site. Having a strong network of relevant referring links can be a great source of traffic, as well as useful information for your visitors. If you run the most popular fan discussion site for your local baseball team, having reciprocating referral links with your area's top football fan site could boost your Referring Sites traffic greatly. You might see jumps in this statistic if you do something with your site that gets picked up by the blogosphere. As news spreads and more blogs link back to the original source (your site), you'll notice more visits from this category.

"Direct Traffic" shows visits from people who clicked a bookmark to come to your site or who typed your site URL directly into their browser. Improvements in Direct Traffic numbers may mean that you are generating a lot of loyal visitors who are adding you to their favorite pages.

"Search Engines" shows visits from people who clicked to your site from a search engine result page regardless of whether it is Google.com or another search engine. If you're doing search campaigns, you'd look to these numbers for signs of improvement. This counts visits from nearly all major search engines including international ones, and more are frequently added to Analytics' index as they gain popularity.

"Other" is a catch-all category that represents any source not falling into the above categories. If you're new to Analytics, this is usually insignificant.

To explore your Traffic Sources reports in more detail, you can click "View reports" in the Dashboard module, or click on Traffic Sources in the left-hand navigation. In the next installment, we'll look at the Content section of reports. If you can't wait to dig deeper, please check out our Help Center.

Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

Where are your clicks coming from? (Geographically speaking)

A new report is now available in the AdWords Report Center: the Geographic Performance report. This report provides you with an understanding of the geographic distribution of your impressions, clicks, and conversions down to the ad group level. Do you know if you're getting more clicks from snowy Juneau, Alaska, or sunny Miami, Florida? Now you can find out.

How can this help? Well, if you're using AdWords, you already know about targeting. You can use location targeting with any campaign to only show ads to users in certain geographic locations.

Say, for example, you sell and ship gourmet ice cream to anywhere in the U.S. After running the report, you find that your ads are doing great in Miami, Florida and Phoenix, Arizona, but you're also finding a surprising amount of customers from Juneau, Alaska. Next step: refine your campaigns. By specifically targeting those locations where your ads perform best you can maximize your campaign's performance.

You can create a Geographic Performance report from the Report Center in your AdWords account.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

(Ad)Word of the Day: Conversion

We all know the importance of measuring the impact of your ad campaigns. That's why, today, we're discussing the term conversion from the AdWords Glossary, which is defined as follows:

When a user completes an action on your site, such as buying something or requesting more information.

In AdWords, a conversion occurs when a user clicks on your ad, then proceeds to complete an action on your web site that you deem valuable, like a purchase, registration, or sign-up. You can track actions like this on your web site by using one (or both) of the tools we offer:

1. Conversion tracking: A tool for measuring conversion metrics for your campaigns.
2. Google Analytics: A more robust tool that tracks not just conversions, but also gives insight into how your web site visitors found your site, how they navigated through it and how you can improve their user experience -- all things that ultimately help you improve the ROI of your web site.

Both conversion tracking and Google Analytics are free tools and are great ways of ensuring advertising accountability and making smarter online advertising decisions.

Learn more about setting up conversion tracking for your AdWords ads, and signing up for Google Analytics. 

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Free online webinar for Google's analysis products

Staying competitive in the online space can be hard if you don't have the proper tools at your disposal. That's why we offer solutions like Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and Google Website Optimizer to help you improve your site's effectiveness and functionality.

Used individually, each product can provide valuable and actionable information about specific aspects of your site. However, by using all three together, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your pages' visibility on Google, where your visitors come from, how they interact with your site, and what content motivates them to take the action you want.

For the first time ever, the Webmaster Tools, Analytics, and Website Optimizer teams will join forces to hold a free webinar entitled The Google Trifecta. This session will be held Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 from 9:00 - 10:00 am PDT. Register to attend here.

During this online seminar, team members will:

• Provide brief introductions to their products
  
• Highlight recent product updates and releases
  
• Discuss the benefits of using all three products together
  
• Answer common questions submitted by attendees
  

Upon registration, we also invite you to submit any specific topics you'd like to see covered. We look forward to seeing you there!

Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

Use Website Optimizer with content management systems

One of the most common questions the Website Optimizer team gets asked by advertisers is whether or not Website Optimizer will work with content management systems (CMS). This morning, the team launched a new Technology Partner program to call attention to those global CMS providers that have been certified as fully compatible with Website Optimizer.

If you'd like to use Website Optimizer to test your CMS-managed web pages, you'll now have a central location to find information on all Website Optimizer certified platforms available to you. Although you can still use Website Optimizer on non-certified platforms, the Website Optimizer Technology Partners make it easier by offering specific documentation and technical support. Most also provide auto-tagging functionality, which will make it easier for you to launch your experiments.

If your current CMS provider isn't yet a Website Optimizer Technology Partner then we encourage you to ask them to join - it's a free and easy way for you both to benefit.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

Track online impact of Google TV Ads using Google Analytics

Google TV Ads can be an effective means of reaching new customers and driving incremental traffic to your website. Now, you can track the online impact of your TV campaigns through your Google Analytics account.

How it works

Using Google Analytics, you can now easily track website metrics, such as visits, conversion rates and revenue, alongside metrics from your TV Ads campaigns, including:

• Impressions delivered
  
• Number of ad plays
  
• Cost
  
• CPM paid
  

By viewing these metrics together, you can analyze the online impact of your TV campaigns, and use this information to optimize your campaigns as you learn.

The image below is a sample Analytics report illustrating the correlation between TV campaign impressions and website traffic. Keep in mind that website traffic may include traffic generated by other channels, not just TV ads.

(Click the image for a full-size version)

How to set it up

To access the TV Campaigns report, you'll need to link the AdWords account containing your TV Ads campaign to your Google Analytics account. Then, once you've run your first TV campaign, the report will automatically appear in your Google Analytics account. From your Analytics account, locate your TV Campaign metrics from the AdWords drop down under Traffic Sources on the left navigation bar.

If you're new to TV Ads and are interested in starting a campaign, just sign in to your AdWords account and look for the Other Campaign Types link at the bottom of the Campaign Summary page. From there, you can create an TV Ads campaign.

How to learn more

We'll be holding a webinar that covers how Google TV Ads can help drive more web traffic and increase your sales volume, turning TV viewers into your customers. This free webinar is on June 19th at 10am PDT, and we invite you to sign up here.

You can also read about how other advertisers are finding success with Google TV Ads, and check out our product demo to learn how to create a campaign step-by-step.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

More Analytics Seminars coming your way

Based on the positive response to our new Analytics Seminars for Success, we've added 6 additional sessions in Boston, Chicago, and Orlando. Industry experts will teach you how to use and apply Analytics knowledge to make smarter marketing decisions.

Sign up seven days before the seminar date and we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords advertising credit. (View the terms and conditions of advertising credits.) You'll find more information about these seminars, including dates, locations, course outlines and registration instructions, at http://www.google.com/awseminars.

And of course, if you'd like to be informed when AdWords and Analytics Seminars become available in your area, simply fill out this form.

Posted by Vivian Leung, Inside AdWords crew