Being in the right places at the right times can be the determining factor for successful ads. Google Ad Planner can help you ensure that your clients' ads are indeed in the right places by identifying sites relevant to your target audience.

For more details on how to leverage Google Ad Planner and how to research information about sites (both on and off the Google Content Network) that your audience is likely to visit, join us for our upcoming webinar: Researching Your Media Plan through Google Ad Planner on Tuesday, July 15th.

You can register here with the passwords below. And make sure you have a client ID number handy to complete your registration.

Event password: planning1
Registration password: agency1

Posted by Lauren Usui, Product Marketing Manager

As Google customers, both you and your clients care that people can find you on the Internet. If your clients have one or more physical locations, it's just as important that customers can find them on the map.

For example, last week I needed directions to a hotel in Sacramento that I had booked for the 4th of July weekend. As I had never been to Sacramento, I was puzzled by the limited directions on the hotel's site - I had no idea whether I was approaching from the North, South, East or West or where the major highways were. What I needed were step-by-step directions from my exact starting point to the hotel that I could easily print and go.

The Google Maps team is excited to tell you about a simple way that you and your clients can add customized directions to your business locations. With the Google directions gadget, any website can offer customized door-to-door directions powered by Google Maps. You no longer need to type and update multiple sets of text directions. Let's face it - customers are only looking for directions from their specific location.

Screenshot of collapsed gadget

The gadget allows you to pre-fill the "To" field with one or multiple addresses, a generic zip code or even a specific set of latitude-longitude coordinates. Customers are able to print their directions with a single click. If they would prefer not to drive, the gadget also provides walking and public transit directions.

Screenshot of public transit directions

Take a look at how some organizations like Legoland California, Emeril Lagasse, and Harvard University are using the gadget. Then test and create your own directions gadget here. The gadget is currently available in 23 different languages.

For more information on the gadget, visit the Google Lat Long blog.

Posted by Julie Zhou, Product Marketing Manager, Google Maps

We're back with our second Quality Score fact. This week's contribution to our newly revived series is:

Quality Score does not suffer when your ads are paused or showing infrequently. One of the factors that determines Quality Score is the performance of a keyword in combination with its associated ads. Pausing ads or showing them infrequently doesn't affect Quality Score since they aren't accruing any performance data while they're not active. So there's no need to worry if you run seasonal or low-exposure campaigns for your clients, your Quality Score won't drop while the ads aren't showing.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Product Marketing Manager

Earlier this year, Google published research highlighting how the economic conditions had changed online buying behavior. Users are researching more online and looking for deals when it comes to purchasing products. Does the same hold true when it comes to dining?

To find out, we worked with Online Testing Exchange to survey patrons of both quick serve and casual dining restaurants. The results are in, and similar to online consumers, online diners are increasingly relying on the Internet for information and deals. Here's an overview of what we learned, and some tips on how to use this data to more effectively market your restaurant clients:

• Diners are online, are you?: 90% of users go online for restaurant information (a 32% increase from 2008!), 80% use search as part of the decision process (with 1/2 of searches coming from mobile devices), and 70% use the Internet to choose a restaurant.
• Tip: Ensure your restaurant clients have a strong online presence, whether it is in the organic search results, sponsored results, local business listings, or mobile ads. Check out Webmaster Central, the Local Business Center and Google Mobile Ads for helpful resources.
  

• Later in the day = more planning: As the day progresses, diners spend more time deciding where to eat. While only 20% of diners spend an hour or more planning where to have breakfast, 46% spend an hour or more planning where to have dinner.
• Tip: Optimize clients' accounts accordingly. For example, for breakfast goers, consider placing locations and promotions in the ads to help users make quick decisions. For dinner goers, experiment with ads directing to reviews and reservation pages.

• Lost or indecisive? Try your phone: Of the 37% of Internet users who go online via mobile devices, 63% research restaurant related activities, 46% research locations and 29% research menus/food items.
• Tip: Ensure sure your clients are easy to find through mobile search so diners can find them on the fly. In addition, local business listings, and in some cases local business ads, will also appear on Google Maps for mobile.

• Online diners aren't just eating out: 35% of online diners look for food for take-out or delivery, 22% join loyalty programs, 19% buy gift cards and 19% participate in contests.
• Tip: Do your clients offer take-out, delivery, gifts or promotions? Be sure to emphasize these unique offerings in ad text.

For additional solutions for local businesses, visit the Google Mobile blog and the Google LatLong blog.

Posted by Kate Keene, Classifieds & Local Marketing

Ad Planner celebrated its first birthday on June 24th, and what a busy year it's been. Based on your feedback, as well as publishers sharing site data and Google Analytics traffic numbers, we've been able to continually innovate to provide you the most accurate data measurements for your media planning.

To celebrate in style, we gave Ad Planner a facelift. You'll find all the same features that you know and love, but the new interface streamlines your research and media planning by making all of our features easy to find and use.

Screenshots of old vs. new Ad Planner interface

For more details, check out the complete post on the Inside AdWords blog. In addition, visit www.google.com/adplanner to check out our new look.

Posted by Wayne Lin, Product Manager

The AdWords API team has been working on the launch of the latest version, v2009, which we're happy to announce is now in production. This version offers more speed, scale, and flexibility to developers, at a lower cost. Since this version is a production beta, developers can sign up for access and will be whitelisted on a rolling basis. For full details on what you'll find in v2009 and how to get started, visit the AdWords API blog.

Posted by Adam Wooley, Product Marketing Manager

Calling all Canadian agencies (and those close to the border)! We're pleased to share that we'll be offering Google Analytics Seminars for Success in Edmonton, Canada on July 17-18, 2009.

The seminars will be led by Benjamin Mangold, an Authorized Analytics Consultant from Mangold Sengers in Australia. Day one will provide an introduction to Google Analytics, and day two will cover how to install and configure the advanced features and capabilities of Google Analytics.

For more information, and to register for one or both sessions, click here or visit the Google Analytics blog.

Posted by Eva Woo, Product Marketing Manager