We continue to receive a lot of questions about Google Website Optimizer, our website testing and optimization tool. Those of you who are familiar with Website Optimizer may have seen the Quick Start Guide and read our advanced testing strategies. Recently, however, you've asked us for more insight on what you should be testing on your webpages. "Should I test my headlines, images, or buttons? Google, what do I test?"

To answer these questions and more, we'd like to invite you to join Website Optimizer's Product Manager, Tom Leung, and guest presenter Bryan Eisenberg (Chief Persuasion Officer, FutureNow, Inc.) for a free online seminar.

TITLE: Website Optimizer: What Should I Test?
DATE: Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
TIME: 9:00 - 10:00 am PST (Pacific Standard Time)
JOIN US: Register to attend

During this online seminar, Tom and Bryan will:

• Provide a brief introduction to Website Optimizer for newer users
• Delve into testing best practice
• Discuss some of the top elements to test on any webpage
  
• Review top mistakes people make when developing new content to test
  

Upon registration, we also invite you to submit specific topics you'd like Tom and Bryan to cover.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew

Following on the success of our AdWords Seminars for Success program, we'll be introducing a new series of Analytics Seminars for Success starting in March. Led by Google Analytics Authorized Consultants, these full day seminars will cover the in's and out's of using Google Analytics to track and optimize your website's performance.

We'll be offering two different levels of Analytics Seminars:


AdWords and Analytics Seminars will be coming to following cities in the next few months:

AdWords
March 10 - Denver - AdWords: Beginner & Intermediate
March 24 - San Francisco Bay Area - AdWords: Beginner & Intermediate
April 7 - San Diego - AdWords: Beginner & Intermediate
April 28 - Dallas - AdWords: Beginner & Intermediate

Analytics
March 25 - San Francisco Bay Area - Analytics: Introduction & User Training
March 25 - Raleigh - Analytics: Introduction & User Training
March 26 - San Francisco Bay Area - Analytics: Advanced Technical Implmentation
March 26 - Raleigh - Analytics: Advanced Technical Implmentation

Sign up 7 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 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, Inside AdWords crew

You may remember Fred Vallaeys, Product Evangelist for AdWords, who joined us towards the end of last year for our popular multi-part series on ROI (Return on Investment) and how to track it. Well, we're pleased to let you know that you can chat with Fred in person at the SMX West conference in San Jose, CA next week.

On Wednesday February 27th, at 4:45pm, Fred is participating in a Paid Search Roundtable in which representatives from the major search ad networks, along with search marketers, will take questions from the audience. If you're attending the conference, we hope you'll stop by, and don't forget to bring your best questions for Fred.

If you can't make the roundtable, you can catch up with Fred at the expo hall reception for conference attendees, from 6:00pm-7:00pm. Fred truly enjoys the chance to meet AdWords advertisers, so keep an eye out for him. You can see Fred in this three and a half minute video about ROI, so you'll know who you're looking for:



As always, if you do chat with Fred please let him know that the Inside AdWords crew sent you. ;)

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

The brand new Healthcare and Real Estate Industry Knowledge Centers are now available to help you get the most out of AdWords.

Advertisers offering health related products, healthcare services, or a website with health information will find customized optimization tips, success stories, and additional Google products that can help their business.

Real estate agents, brokers, and advertisers offering real estate services will find industry information, AdWords tips, and Google product recommendations.

You can find a full list of Industry Knowledge Centers here.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

We'd like to give you advance notice of an update to our display URL policy, which will take effect on April 1st. While the majority of advertisers will not be affected at all, action will be required from those who are. Please take a few minutes to read this post thoroughly, as the information below should help you determine whether you will be affected by this change.

In response to advertiser and user feedback, and in an effort to provide more relevant advertising results and a higher quality experience for our users, we have made the decision to no longer allow certain exceptions with regards to our display URL policy. This includes, but is not limited to redirects and vanity URLs. This policy will be strictly enforced regardless of past approvals and will apply to all advertisers, beginning on April 1st.

In line with our existing policy, we will continue to require that your ad's display URL match its destination URL (the URL of your landing page).

For example, if your destination URL is www.google.com, your display URL must also be www.google.com. The following would not be acceptable display URLs for an ad for www.google.com:

• www.google.co.uk - because this URL leads to a different site
• www.gogle.com - even though this URL simply redirects to www.google.com it is still not acceptable
• www.gooogle.com - because this URL leads to a page showing content identical to www.google.com

What about tracking URLs?
We do understand that many advertisers utilize tracking URLs within the destination field of their ads. Therefore, if the URL of your landing page matches that of your display URL, your ads will be approved.

For example:



Are sub-domains still acceptable?
Yes, the use of sub-domains and additional text within the display will continue to be acceptable provided the top-level domain matches the URL of your landing page.

For example, display URLs such as the following:


would all be acceptable for the landing page URL below, as the top-level domain of google.com is matched:


In light of this update to display URL policy, we'd encourage you to make any necessary changes to your ads in advance of the April 1st date to ensure that they'll run without disruption by future disapprovals related to this policy.

Thanks for reading this far, and please note that more information will be provided before April 1st via alerts in all AdWords accounts.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

The Conversion Optimizer is a bidding feature that allows you to set a maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) instead of a maximum cost-per-click (CPC), helping you save time and maximize profits. We recently held a series of Conversion Optimizer webinars, which you can watch on YouTube. To help you get more out of your Conversion Optimizer campaigns, we've compiled a list of top tips based on the most common questions we received from our webinar attendees.

1. A campaign must have 200 or more conversions per month as tracked by AdWords conversion tracking to be eligible for the Conversion Optimizer. If none of your campaigns reach this level, check out these tips to increase your conversion numbers.
   
   
2. Conversion Optimizer works on a campaign level, not at the account level. You can enable Conversion Optimizer for eligible campaigns by following these steps. Keep in mind that you can't use Conversion Optimizer with a brand new campaign -- it needs the conversion history to work correctly.
   
   
3. Once you activate the Conversion Optimizer, you should check its performance periodically to ensure that it's delivering what you expect. Keep in mind that normal variations in campaign performance can make it difficult to interpret short-term changes. You can change your bids as often as you like.
   
   
4. The Conversion Optimizer works on a maximum CPA, not an average CPA. While we aim to avoid any conversion that costs more than your maximum CPA bid, changes in your conversion rate may cause your average CPA to exceed your maximum CPA.
   
   
5. Keep in mind that if you choose a CPA lower than the recommended maximum CPA bid, you are likely to get less traffic than you did with your old CPC bids. It's a good idea to start with this recommendation and adjust based on the results you observe.
   
   
6. If you choose to opt out of the Conversion Optimizer, your campaign will revert to the previous CPC bids you were using. (So, there's nothing to stop you from giving it a try!)
   
   
7. Conversion Optimizer campaigns cannot yet be modified with the AdWords Editor, but we're aware that this is a common request from our advertisers.
   
   
8. The Conversion Optimizer does not work with Google Analytics conversion data, but it's fine to use AdWords conversion tracking and Analytics at the same time.
   
   
9. The tool does not impact your keywords' Quality Score, which is calculated in the usual way regardless of the bidding option you are using.
   
   
10. It's best not to turn on the Conversion Optimizer for the first time right after you've made major changes to a campaign, as your conversion rate may not have yet stabilized to reflect the updates. Similarly, while you are running the Conversion Optimizer, it's best to avoid major campaign changes that are likely to impact conversion rate (or to pay careful attention after making them to evaluate their impact).
    

We hope this information has piqued your interest about the Conversion Optimizer. Please visit the Conversion Optimizer website for more information, including FAQs and details for upcoming webinars.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

For Valentine's Day, we wanted to write you a sonnet but we've found that it isn't as easy as Shakespeare made it look. So instead, we took the traditional approach. Here's a Valentine's day poem from each of us...enjoy!

Roses are red

Violets are blue

We love our readers
...Yes, we mean you. :) (Vivian)

Roses are red
Violets are purple
Our readers are as sweet
As fine maple syrple. (Blake)

Roses are red
violets are mauve
Inside AdWords readers
Are pretty darn suave. (Trevor)

Roses are red
So are your lips
We're glad you read
our AdWords news and tips. (Feng)

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
Google offers a number of business solutions that help advertisers increase their ROI, most of which are free. Check them out here. (Christian)

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Happy Heart Day...
From the Inside AdWords crew. (Heather)

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

If you read the Inside AdWords blog to learn the latest features and tips relating to AdWords, you'll be interested in knowing about the new Google Business YouTube channel.

On this channel, you can watch Fred Vallaeys, our AdWords Evangelist, discuss conversion tracking and bid management, learn the basics of ad quality, receive tips on how to brainstorm negative keywords, or view a webinar on the AdWords Conversion Optimizer.

In addition to videos on AdWords, the channel also features videos of other Google business solutions like Google Analytics and Website Optimizer. The videos are currently organized into different playlists by product and by topic.

We hope you'll enjoy watching (and hearing) our very own product experts explain the different ways Google can help your business. We would love to know your suggestions and feedback as we continue to develop more content for this channel.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

On Saturday, February 16th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to scheduled maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.

AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month during the above times -- with this month being an exception to that rule, as previously noted in our January maintenance update.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but you may want to take note of our intended dates and times to help you plan for any scheduled downtimes further down the road.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Later this month, specialists from the Audio Ads team will host three free online webinars. Join us for tips on how to set up an effective radio campaign and optimization ideas. A few members of the Audio Ads product team will also join us as guest speakers, offering ways to help you more easily track the impact of your Audio Ads campaigns.

The webinars will take place February 20-22. Registration closes 12:00pm PST on Thursday, February 14, so sign up now. The content of each webinar is the same -- please pick the date that works best for you. Once you sign up, we'll email you login information to access the webinar.

If you aren't familiar with Audio Ads, we encourage you to join us to learn more. You can also check out a collection of sample 30-second radio ads, played on AM and FM radio stations across the U.S. using Google Audio Ads. All of the ads listed were created by specialists in the Google Ad Creation Marketplace.

See you soon!

Posted by Heather, Inside AdWords crew

In Part 1 of Google Analytics 101, we talked about what Google Analytics is, how it helps site owners, and how to sign up. At the end of the sign-up process, we arrived at the Analytics Settings page, which is where you administer your account and make important changes. Let's take a closer look around it (we've numbered the screenshot to make it easier to follow).




(1) This picture is of an account that hasn't finished code installation. At the top you'll notice the box with the yellow exclamation mark that says the tracking code hasn't been detected. This box will go away once your code is installed. If you need to look at your code again, click the 'Check Status' button to get it.

(2) This grey-headlined box in the middle of the page contains your Website Profiles. Here's the first of some important Analytics definitions: a profile is a set of rules that determines what data shows up in your Analytics reports. The rules for a particular profile include user access levels, advanced configurations, and most importantly, the website being tracked. You can have as many profiles as you want, meaning that you can track multiple domains each with their own profile. Or, you can track one domain with multiple profiles to look at different sets of data. For now we'll stick with one domain and one profile. You have to have at least one profile per Google Analytics account at all times.

(3) To the right of the Website Profiles box are links to our Help Center. These common FAQs in the Help Center fill in a lot of details if you're having trouble setting up, or just feel like poking around.

(4) Underneath the Website Profiles box are links to add more profiles, manage user access, and create filters for your data. These tools, when properly set up, allow you to control what data shows up in your reports, making it easier to focus on certain segments of traffic. We'll give these options individual attention in the future.

That's it for this installment on Analytics Settings. In Part 3 we'll introduce the reports, as well as feature a certain statistic that web analytics experts often say is the one of the single most useful around.

Posted by Christian, Inside AdWords crew

Tomorrow, February 2nd, is Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney Phil will soon emerge from his burrow and give his prediction for how much longer winter will last. While working with a prognosticating woodchuck to predict seasons is great, we have our own tool for determining seasonality: Google Trends.

Google Trends shows you what the world is searching for. Using Google Trends you can see when searches for a particular keyword are most popular as well as the top geographic regions and cities for that keyword. You can even perform comparisons between keywords.


Here we have a trends graph for the searches performed in the United States in 2007 for the keywords flowers, roses, and chocolate. We can see that flowers is more popular around Valentine's Day and most popular around Mother's Day. Roses, on the other hand, sees the biggest surge around Valentine's Day, and just a small bump for Mother's Day. And chocolate has jumps for Valentine's Day and Easter and then starts climbing around Halloween, peaking around Christmas. You can also look at a monthly view to see which days have the most traffic. Knowing this information can help you prepare your campaigns for the additional interest.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew