Announcing View-through conversion reporting on the Google Content Network

Earlier this year, we mentioned our plans to improve the measurement of conversions for display advertising campaigns on the Google Content Network. Today, to help you better measure the value of your display advertising campaigns, we're announcing a new feature called View-through conversion reporting on the Google Content Network.

Display ads are influential in increasing brand awareness and driving purchase consideration, and with View-through conversion reporting, you can better measure the impact of your display ad campaign for those instances where your ad is seen, but not immediately clicked on. More specifically, View-through conversion reporting measures the number of conversions that occurred within 30 days of your display ad appearing for which there was no ad click generated.

By using View-through conversion reporting, you can more easily compare the performance of your Google Content Network campaign with the performance of your other display advertising campaigns. This feature can also help you determine the best ways and places to advertise, how best to optimize your display ad campaigns, and, ultimately, how to spend your advertising dollars more effectively.

Here is an example of how View-through conversion reporting works: Let's say you're selling pet food online and you're measuring conversions on your site's email newsletter sign-up and your shopping cart "Thank You" pages. If a user sees your display ad, does not click on it but then visits your site within the next 30 days to sign-up to receive your email newsletter and to purchase a couple dozen cans of organic cat food, you'll see two View-through conversions reported on your Campaigns tab in AdWords.

Starting today, you can also visit the Campaigns tab in AdWords and activate the optional View-through conversion reporting column. You'll need to have AdWords Conversion Tracking installed for View-through conversion reporting to work for your campaigns.

To learn more about View-through conversion reporting on the Google Content Network, you can visit the Help Center. We hope this feature will provide you with better information about your campaigns and help you get the most out of your display advertising campaigns.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Google Rolls Out Sitelinks Display For Forums

Discussion forums are a popular way for people to find answers online, but forums often have multiple “threads” or conversations on the same topic. Now Google’s listing forums in a new way to better expose relevant threads. In searches that bring up a forum listing, Google’s now showing additional forum threads below the [...]

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New Seminars for Success locations

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Inside AdWords crew

Google Improves Local Mobile Search, Links Maps & Mobile

In simple but still dramatic fashion, Google has upgraded browser based local search on mobile handsets. It has also tied Maps on the PC to mobile in a very effective way. And recognizing the limitations of keying in queries into a search box on a mobile handset, Google has taken a page from its Places [...]

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How To Get More PPC Traffic For Less Money

Search advertising success is defined by relevance. The concept of relevance is broad, but logical: it’s the relationships between advertiser, keyword, ad copy and the landing page/ post click experience. So, how do we know if our relationships are strong, and our account is relevant? Simple: Quality Score for Google, or Quality Index for Yahoo. There are [...]

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Google Merchant Center Replaces Google Base for Products

Google has introduced the Google Merchant Center, designed to replace Google Base for submitting products to the search engine.

Google says that Merchant Center provides a better-optimized experience for product listings. The Merchant Center interface is similar to Base and uses the same account info. Just sign into Merchant Center with your Google Base account and you'll see your feeds, items, FTP settings, etc.

Non-product items still use Google Base. If you the same account for Merchant Center (for products) and Base (for non-products), Google says you'll need to reset your FTP settings in Google Base.

Feedburner Goes All Permanent on Their URL Redirects

If you've ever clicked on a link in your RSS reader and that link is associated with a site that uses Feedburner, you've probably noticed that the initial URL to appear in your browser's address bar was related to the feed and not the final URL. That's because Feedburner uses the URL to track the click.

The redirect was a 302, a temporary redirect. But now Feedburner is updating the URLs to be permanent 301 redirects.

Feedburner, which is owned by Google, says that the reason for the change was that some search engines index the feeds, which affects the popularity of a site.

If you use Feedburner, you don't have to do anything special. The update is automatic.

Microsoft Execs Get Pay Cuts; No One Feels Sorry for Them

Microsoft has filed a document with the SEC showing that top executives at the software giant have received pay cuts. Basically, some millionaires are making a few million less than they normally would.

In related news, Kleenex was having a hard time moving tissue boxes off the shelves this week.

Meanwhile, Steve Ballmer released a 1,300 word dissertation on his thoughts regarding the "new normal" which is translating into the "new efficiency." Basically, people are saving more and spending less. You would think that would translate into a lower Windows 7 price, but somehow I doubt that's gonna happen.

Instead, Ballmer talked about how upgrading to Windows 7 will save companies money in the long run. Pay now, benefit later. That must have been the theme for those pay cut conversations with the execs as well.

Warner Music Returns to YouTube

Last December, Warner Music decided not to renew its contract with YouTube. They wanted more money from the advertising coming in to YouTube as a results of the company's popular music videos. It was only slightly ironic since YouTube (and social media in general) has been notorious for not monetizing very well.

Meanwhile, another major label, Univeral was out there touting the benefits of having their videos on YouTube, which actually made music videos a viable part of a business model again (you know, ever since MTV wrapped their business model around socialites in Hollywood.)

Not only did Universal renew their contract, but they partnered with YouTube to create their own music site, Vevo. Sony a also renewed their contract.

Of course, traffic on YouTube continues to soar. In August alone, 161 million users watched over 10 billion videos on the popular video site.

So, it's no surprise to learn that Warner Music is returning to YouTube. They'll be back to making tens of millions of dollars off what is essentially a marketing medium.

The new deal allows them to sell their own ad inventory and includes a revenue sharing agreement. Warner will also be using the Content ID program to make money from videos uploaded by third parties that use content developed by Warner artists.

Bryan Eisenberg Shares 69 Free (or Low Cost) Tools to Improve Your Website

Bryan Eisenberg, the co-author of the bestselling books "Call to Action", "Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?" and "Always Be Testing", has a new personal blog named, Bryan Eisenberg. (Does he owe his parents royalties for using that name for his blog?)

And he's just posted an incredibly useful list of 69 Free (or low cost) Tools to Improve Your Website.

(I should disclose that I'm mentioned in the 69th listing, which is for Market Motive, but so are Avinash Kaushik, John Marshall, Todd Malicoat, Matt Bailey, and Jennifer Laycock, who are also members of the Market Motive faculty.)

So, check out the complete list of low-cost and free tools. Yes, yes, you'll find ones like Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer, that you already knew about. But there are plenty of others that I'd never heard about before.

And while you are visiting Eisenberg's new blog, let him know if there are other free (or low cost) tools that should be added to the list. Hey, improving your website is hard, so we want to know as many options as possible.

Oh, and if you come to SES Chicago 2009, thank Eisenberg in person. You can't miss him. He's the New York Yankees fan being interviewed by the Boston Red Sox Nation citizen in the video below.

Bryan Eisenberg, Future Now, at SES London 2008 on SEO