It's the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and all you're probably thinking about right now is "I need to defrost the turkey, pick up another can of pumpkin filling, and vacuum before family arrives." That, and "are my clients' accounts ready for Black Friday, the busiest retail shopping day of the year?"

To ensure that you and your clients have a successful Black Friday, we wanted to use this Holiday Campaign Countdown post to share some quick last minute tips from our Optimization Specialists.

While Black Friday typically refers to in-store traffic, the retail industry has seen dramatic year over year increases in e-commerce sales and searches¹. Analysts have also pointed to significant spikes in online shopping on Cyber Monday. The Monday after Thanksgiving yields sales spikes for e-commerce retailers² and is fueled by promotions such as percent off sales, free gifts, and free shipping.

Our suggestions for any retail accounts (or others that might see this seasonal spike) before you leave the office for the Thanksgiving Holiday are:

1. Promotions - Be sure to highlight any promotions you have in your ad text whether they are Black Friday specific or not. If you have a discount on shipping or it is free, highlight this.
2. Budgets - Increase budgets across all campaigns to a comfortable level knowing that traffic spikes will be likely. Make sure ads keep showing when a user searches.
3. Bids – Modify bids on top performing and generic keywords knowing that competition on Black Friday/Cyber Monday will increase. Use the Bid Simulator to see what results you may get with different keyword maximum CPC bids, and consider using Conversion Optimizer to get as many profitable clicks as possible.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[1] MarketingVox
[2] National Retail Federation with BIGresearch, Black Friday Weekend, 12/2/08. *Excludes Cyber Monday.

Posted by Ben Sheldon, Agency Optimization Strategist

A few weeks ago, we announced a new tool designed to bring the power, speed, and relevancy of Google search to retail websites. With Black Friday (and Cyber Monday!) right around the corner we wanted to use this Holiday Campaign Countdown post to arm you with information for retail clients who may be shopping around for a new website search solution (pun intended).

As a hosted product, Google Commerce Search (GCS) installs quickly, scales effortlessly, and provides sub-second response times, even during seasonal traffic spikes. With advanced search features like spelling correction, automatic stemming, and custom synonyms, users will find what they're looking for without unnecessary clicks. Finally, Google Commerce Search is powered by the retailer's Google Merchant Center feed, streamlining implementation. Check out the full list of features in this overview video:

(click to watch video)

GCS provides visitors with an improved shopping experience, which can drive higher visitor-to-buyer conversion rates. While the conversion rates of most retailers is around 3%¹, the best-performing sites have been able to achieve much higher conversion rates – even reaching double digits. Google Commerce Search can help bridge the gap between user expectation and on-site technology, while freeing retailers to do what they do best, creating and selling products.

To learn more, be sure to sign up for an upcoming webinar on December 3rd. If you're unable to make it, you can learn more at google.com/commercesearch.

[1]Trends 2009: US Online Retail, Forrester Research, Inc., April 2009

Posted by Anna Bishop, Enterprise search team

We know that media buyers and planners are challenged daily to stay up to date on the products, tools, pricing models and ad formats for the myriad of media companies with which they work. To make Google's tools and products more accessible, we developed Creative Canvas: A guide to Google media solutions. The guide features the Google media products and tools, such as YouTube ad solutions, APIs, and OpenSocial, that have brought to life some of the most innovative and creative campaigns on the Google platform.

We've organized it by the categories planning, placing, extending and measuring to make it easy to find the right resource to get the job done. In addition, if you know exactly what you're looking for, you can find it in the index.

You may download the guide here. Have questions or feedback? Email sandbox@google.com.

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Team

For most, the holiday season is about giving; for some, though, it's unfortunately about taking - through scams, identity theft and more. With the holidays approaching, many of you are beginning to update your ads and content for a busy marketing season. Are you also checking that your systems are updated with the latest security patches? Do you know who has access to your account(s)? Is your account information/passwords strong and secure?

As part of our holiday campaign countdown series, we're pleased to bring you a webinar on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11amPST highlighting account security best practices and tips to keep your campaigns running smoothly during this busy time. In this training, we'll cover common security techniques, review ways to identify suspicious internet behavior and suggestions on the best ways to protect your computer and your personal information. Additionally, learn about an existing Google feature that allows you to better manage your account and thus improve your account security.

Date & Time: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
Register here

Posted by Nina Hoang, Account Security Team

If you live in the New York area, you may have heard or seen the so-called "Google surge," or Google Content Network blast that NY Mayor Bloomberg used to impact voters' decisions in the final hours of the mayor's reelection race. An increasing number of advertisers across industries, including auto, retail, and entertainment, have also used Google Content Network blasts to drive awareness of a new vehicle launch, viewer tune-in for a show, or traffic to an online contest with great success.

The Google Content Network blast entails serving up an advertiser's ads on multiple Google Content Network sites over a specific period of time, blanketing a particular geographic region, audience segment, or high traffic sites, depending on the advertiser's goal. On average, blasts can deliver 100 million ad impressions in 24-48 hours. But you're probably wondering what is special about Google Content Network blasts versus your typical portal homepage buy?

Google Content Network blasts deliver your message on a larger universe of sites than a single portal homepage, thereby reaching more of your customers. In a recent Google and TNS Compete study for a large automaker¹, we found that Google Content Network blasts reach 58% of online auto buyers, which is 20% more than a top portal homepage², and 23% of buyers were reached exclusively on sites available only on the Google Content Network². In addition, 30% of auto buyers never went to one of the major portal homepages 6 to 9 months prior to purchasing their vehicle³. And the best part of all is Google Content Network blasts require no advance booking and deliver relevant ads at a much lower CPM than portal takeovers.

So, as we enter the peak holiday shopping season, consider how you're getting the word out on your merchandise and holiday offerings. Want to make a last minute big impression? Visit The Google Content Network site to learn more, and try out a Google Content Network blast for yourself.

1 Google, Inc. and TNS Compete study for large automaker, May 2009
2 Reach is based on a custom GCN site pack using a parameter of 2% buyer composition mix per site
3 Based on observed clickstream behavior of buyers

Posted by Keiko Tokuda, Google Content Network Marketing Team

Most of us can't imagine the web without search, yet when it comes to on-site search, the majority of websites are lagging behind. According to industry research, 85% of site searches don't return what the user sought¹, and 22% of site searches return no results at all². For clients who may have site search quality issues, leading to site abandonment, we have a cost-effective solution for you to share with them.

Google Site Search is a quick and easy way to add or improve website search capability. Hosted in Google's network of data centers, Google Site Search brings the speed, quality, and relevancy of Google search to sites with no on-premise hardware or software. Administrators can control the look and feel of the search engine, including optional Google branding and an XML API that allows for complete customization. New features like rich snippets, metadata refinements, top result and date biasing, and on-demand indexing make for a powerful search experience.

Starting at $100 per year, it's easy and affordable for clients to add Google Site Search to a blog or website of any size. To learn more and sign up, visit google.com/sitesearch today.

(1) "Enriching Search: Efficiency Without Additional Spending," Jupiter Research
(2) "Unpuzzling Search: Best Practices from Mondosoft Study," IDC

Posted by Anna Bishop, Enterprise Search Team

The latest enhancements to Google Ad Planner and DoubleClick's DART for Advertisers (DFA) bring new ways to help streamline your online display advertising workflow. With the newly launched DFA Analytics beta and beta integration of Google Ad Planner into the DFA platform, you'll now have a singular, seamless portal for planning, executing, and measuring campaigns -- with just one login. This unified set of tools, all accessible through the DFA platform, bring more efficiency to the campaign management process, saving valuable time and resources.

Beyond access enhancements, both DFA Analytics and Ad Planner also provide you with more data and more ways to analyze it. We've summarized the changes to each product for quick reference below, but be sure to check out the official DoubleClick and Ad Planner blog posts for full details.

The new DFA Analytics beta helps you:

• Gain insights quickly. Interactive reports mean easier navigation through your accounts and data. You can model data in charts and graphs, as well as drill up and down through criteria such as advertiser, campaign, or targeting settings.
• Get your reports faster. Reports update frequently - every few hours - and the new user interface enables you to access your data quickly.
• Use new types of reports. Pull geographic delivery data. Additional reports show delivery data by bandwidth, browser, and operating system.

And Ad Planner's new capabilities now enable you to:

• View subdomain data. See data including traffic estimates and demographics for the largest ten subdomains of any top-level domain. Once you identify subdomains to add, you can do so easily in Ad Planner.
• See available ad placements while researching sites. You'll also be able to search for ad placements alongside domains on the "Search by audience" tab and see traffic and demographic estimates for each placement
• Visualize audience data easily. Quickly compare reach and relevancy of sites you select with a new interactive graph.
• Access more granular publisher data. With publishers now able to opt-in their Analytics data, you'll receive more accurate and specific information about their sites.
• Use Ad Planner within DoubleClick DFA. Log in to your DoubleClick DFA account to access Ad Planner and have one tool for campaign planning, trafficking, and measurement. (Note: This feature is rolling out to all users over the next couple weeks)

If you haven't yet tried Ad Planner, give it a go at www.google.com/adplanner. And for more information on DART for Advertisers, visit DoubleClick.com and fill out an inquiry form.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team