Chatting with Neal Mohan about DoubleClick Insights

On Tuesday, June 5th, at 9am - 1pm PST, we will be live streaming 
DoubleClick Insights  -- a series of spirited, thought-provoking conversations about the future of digital marketing with leaders from top advertisers, agencies and publishers.  We caught up with Neal Mohan, VP of Display Advertising, and the host of DoubleClick Insights to ask him about the event. 


Q: Why did Google decide to host DoubleClick Insights this year?

A: Every year, DoubleClick hosts our Client Advisory Board event to talk to our advertising and publishing customers about our plans, and to learn how our solutions could better serve their businesses.  Customers at the advisory board have asked that we share more of our perspective on the industry trends we’re seeing. To share these trends not only with our customers, but with the broader digital advertising community, we will be hosting the first DoubleClick Insights event, live streaming on YouTube.


Q: What will the discussions at DoubleClick Insights focus on?
A: We’ve invited executives from leading agencies, advertisers and publishers to help us lead conversations around three important themes:

1. How do we better adapt to the empowered consumer?  In a world where consumers are increasingly in control, what do advertisers and publishers need to do to better engage and increasingly fickle consumer.


2. Where does the ad technology ecosystem go next?  We’ve seen explosive growth in ad tech over the last 20 years, but there’s still a lot that could be done to unlock all of the potential value for publishers, marketers – and ultimately consumers.


3. Finally, we want to take a look at how all of this technology is being used and ask ourselves if all this technology is leading to better ad creative, or is it just creating complexity that is holding us back.  

You can view the full DoubleClick Insights agenda here.



Q: You mentioned other executives helping lead the conversation.  Who is speaking at DoubleClick Insights?

A:  We've invited an array of the most influential speakers from every facet of advertising and media to join us for DoubleClick Insights. To call out a few of our speakers: Terry Kawaja, Founder and CEO, LUMA Partners; David Kenny, Chairman & CEO, The Weather Channel Companies ; Jimmy Pitaro, Co-President, Disney Interactive Media Group; Omar Tawokol, Chief Executive Officer, BlueKai, Kurt Unkel - President, Vivaki; and many more.   You can view the full speakers list here.



Q: You’ve said before that digital advertising will become a $200 billion dollar industry. Will DoubleClick Insights answer what the next growth phase looks like for digital marketing?
A: I believe that the only way to create real value for all of us is by working better together because we are on the same journey -- whether that’s ad tech working better together, or advertisers and publishers working better together.  There is no single, magic solution for solving all of our challenges, so we need to work across the ecosystem to deliver on the full potential for digital marketing.


Q: Where can I find more information on DoubleClick Insights?

A: You can watch DoubleClick Insights on YouTube on June 5th, 2012 at 9:00am PST.

If you're following us on Google+ or Twitter (@DoubleClick and @DoubleClick_pub), use the #dclkinsights tag as you're watching the event to ask questions or share comments during the event.



Posted by Stephen Kliff and Scott Brown, DoubleClick Marketing

May 31 release: Full launch of Search Query reports

On May 31, DoubleClick Search released Search Query reporting to all customers. This powerful new feature provides you with insight into the search queries, or terms, that are driving visits for your ads and the revenue you derive from these queries. Due to search engine broad and phrase matching, your ads are often triggered for more search queries than the exact keywords that you’re bidding on. While this is desirable, often you’ll want to view the exact queries that are triggering your ads and the cost and revenue impact of those queries. Read this blog post to learn more about Search Query reporting.



Read the Help Center release notes for more information about this release, including the issues that were fixed.



Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

What's new in DoubleClick for Publishers

We’re always adding new features to DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP). The list below contains some highlights. For a complete list, please visit the DFP or DFP Small Business Help Centers.




Available in DFP and DFP Small Business:




Inline Editing for Line Items and Creatives: We’re constantly innovating to bring simplicity and time saving processes to DFP. To help speed up the editing process of line items and creatives, you can now update several parameters of your line items and creatives from the Order Overview page rather than clicking into, and editing each item separately.



Standalone Creative Library: To get your work done more efficiently, we’ve designed the new link “Creatives” on the Orders-Tab. This location gives you access to all creatives uploaded to your network where you can review them by name, advertiser, type and size. When clicking into a creative, you have access to the complete creative object and its assignments, which allows you to make changes without first having to open a respective campaign. We think you’ll notice that this is one more way we’re helping to speed up workflow.



Available in DFP Mobile:




Tagging Upgrade: Many of you have asked for this and now mobile Google Publisher Tags (GPT) have been upgraded to support additional features you’re familiar with from desktop tags such as asynchronous rendering.




Available in DFP Video:




Merge/Removal of Duplicate Videos: To further help with efficiency, DFP now has the functionality to merge or remove duplicate videos. This is particularly useful when using more than one CMS to upload videos into DFP, which often leads to duplicates showing up.




Content Filtering: To help with the organization of your uploaded videos, you can now view them by using the following filters in the Content-Tab: name, source, source name or content ID. This feature also lets you narrow down your results by allowing you to combine filter criteria as well.




UI Enhancement for Displaying Video Content: To provide you with even more controls and insights on your video content, additional information has been added to the Video Content Overview page such as video preview capability, import date and targeting criteria.




Posted by Alex Strittmatter, DFP Product Specialist

Future of Advertising Event - DoubleClick Insights

There has been explosive growth in ad technology over the last 20 years. From each of our perspectives -- whether you are an agency, an advertiser, publisher or a technology provider -- we can all still see unprecedented opportunities as the digital world continues to grow and diversify.



We believe that as an industry, we’re on a common digital journey and that the next wave of innovation in ad tech will come from us all working better together.



However, like all great opportunities, there are challenges and questions, such as:

• How do we unlock the next $50 billion of opportunity for digital advertising? 


• How do we deliver those immersive, interactive experiences to today’s empowered consumer demands? 


• What do we, as part of the ad tech ecosystem, need to build to create even more value for our clients and consumers?

On June 5th we’re hosting DoubleClick Insights to start exploring some answers to these questions. Senior leaders from top agencies, advertisers and publishers will help lead the conversation -- and you’re invited to join via the live stream! Register here.



The agenda will include topics such as:


Adapting to the Empowered Consumer:

Neal Mohan, Vice President, Display Advertising at Google will be joined by David Kenny, Chairman & CEO, The Weather Channel Companies, and James Pitaro, Co-President, Disney Interactive Media Group, to discuss how technology is being used to deliver new content and advertising experiences to consumers.



If We Build It, Will They (Consumers) Come?

Terry Kawaja, CEO and Co-Founder, Luma Partners (and creator of the now legendary LUMAscape chart) will lead a conversation about the ad tech ecosystem, and what it needs to do next to add value for agencies, publishers, marketers – and ultimately consumers. Terry will be joined onstage by:

• Omar Tawokol, Chief Executive Officer, BlueKai


• Greg Stuart, Global CEO of Mobile Marketing Association


• Kurt Unkel, President, VivaKi 


• Shishir Mehrota, Vice President of Product Management, YouTube

Outside the Box: Technology = Creative Friend or Foe?

Technology is supposed to make the life of a marketer easier. For our final conversation, we’re going to focus on the question of: Is this technology exploring resulting in better marketing? Or, is it just resulting in mediocre creative and complexity for both consumers and marketers? Karim Temsamani, Vice President - New Products and Solutions, Google moderates the conversation with leaders from creative agencies, iconic brands and publishers including:

• Brad Ruffkess, Global Connection, Coca-Cola


• Mike Lowenstern, Managing Director of Digital Advertising, R/GA


• Peter Minnium, Head of Digital Brand Initiatives, IAB 


• John Caldwell, Chief Digital Officer, National Geographic

The live stream will start on June 5, 2012, at 9:00 am PDT, and you’ll
be able to watch from your computer, tablet, or mobile device. To learn
more about our highlighted speakers go to the Speakers page on our site.



Please register for this virtual event by visiting the DoubleClick Insights Live Stream page.



DoubleClick Insights

Tuesday, June 5th 2012

9:00am - 1:00pm PST

Set event reminder today



Following us on Google+ or Twitter (@DoubleClick and @DoubleClick_pub)? Use the #dclkinsights tag as you're watching the event to ask questions or share comments during the event?


Posted by Stephen Kliff and Scott Brown, DoubleClick Marketing

A fresh design for the Google Affiliate Network Help Center

After launching nearly four years ago, the Google Affiliate Network Help Center has been regularly updated with articles to help you find answers to common issues, manage your account, and learn affiliate marketing best practices.



Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve launched improvements to the design of our Help Center to give you easy access to help content that is most relevant to you.



The new design features four main sections:

• Get Started in the left navigation has basic information about Google Affiliate Network and how to launch or activate your advertiser or publisher account.


• Learn about Google Affiliate Network contains articles organized by category. Quickly find information you need about your account, managing ads, running reports, and many other areas. Plus, we’ve added a comprehensive FAQ that covers the most common questions users ask.


• Fix an issue helps you troubleshoot and resolve specific issues.


• Additional resources in the right navigation includes more ways to connect with us and get support such as our forum, Twitter feed, and even this blog.

In the next few weeks, look out for new help articles as well as additional changes to further simplify your Help Center experience.




Ready to get started? Visit the Advertiser or Publisher Help Center today. After you’ve taken a few minutes to check out the redesigned Help Center, we’d love to hear from you in our forum.



Posted by:

Josh Pyle, Google Affiliate Network Strategist

g|days Are Coming to India

After its roaring success in South America, Middle East and Africa, we’re delighted to bring Google g|days to India. The g|day events are an opportunity for businesses and web developers to learn more about Google products and the opportunities that are available online.



Google products have always been simple and easy to use, and with g|india events, we hope to make our platform and tools more accessible to the Business and Developer communities in India.



We will be hosting 5 events in India from July to September, with the kickoff in Chennai on the 19/20th of July, and cover all major cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi with the final event in Mumbai on the 13 / 14 September 2012.



The Full Schedule: 

• g|chennai - 19 / 20 July 


• g|bangalore - 2 / 3 August 


• g|hyderabad - 21 / 22 August 


• g|delhi - 4 / 5 September 


• g|mumbai - 11 / 12 September 

The two day event will cater to different audiences with Day 1 focussing on businesses who want to learn more about Google products and Day 2 will be dedicated to the tech audience like webmasters & App developers.



Day 1: Business Day: Business users and entrepreneurs will benefit from learning about Google tools that will help them to improve and take advantage of their online presence. We will host dedicated tracks on topics likes AdWords, AdSense, YouTube, Google+, and Google Apps.



Day 2: Technical Day: Will provide an opportunity to web developers and webmasters to discuss and learn more about Google platforms like Android, Google+, Google Apps and Google APIs.



Find more information here

The events will feature multiple tracks, including sessions specifically for Women Entrepreneurs and sessions for people seeking to become more involved with Google. We will also host multiple panel discussions on both days giving the audience a chance to hear from Google product leads and local industry experts.



The event is totally free, with registrations opening today. So hurry up and make sure to register yourself today. The countdown to the g|india events has begun, and so has the excitement.



Posted by Sunil Rao, Country Head , Outreach Programs, India.

Local—now with a dash of Zagat and a sprinkle of Google+

[Cross posted from Google Official Blog]



Finding the best places to go is an essential part of our lives, as are the people and resources that help us make those decisions. In fact, the opinions of friends, family or other trusted sources are often the first we seek when looking for the perfect restaurant for date night or the cafe that makes the best latte ever.



Today, we’re rolling out Google+ Local, a simple way to discover and share local information featuring Zagat scores and recommendations from people you trust in Google+. Google+ Local helps people like my husband turn a craving—“Wow, I need brunch”—into an afternoon outing: “Perfect, there’s a dim sum place with great reviews just two blocks from here. Let’s go.” It’s integrated into Search, Maps and mobile and available as a new tab in Google+—creating one simple experience across Google.

Local information integrated across Google 

From the new “Local” tab on the left-hand side of Google+, you can search for specific places or browse for ones that fit your mood. If you click on a restaurant, or a museum (or whatever), you’ll be taken to a local Google+ page that includes photos, Zagat scores and summaries, reviews from people you know, and other useful information like address and opening hours.



Google+ Local is also integrated across other products you already use every day. If you’re looking for a place on Search or Maps, you get the same great local information there too. You can also take it on the go with Google Maps for mobile on your Android device, and soon on iOS devices.

A search on Google Maps

Google+ Local on an Android phone

Better decisions with Zagat 

Since Zagat joined the Google family last fall, our teams have been working together to improve the way you find great local information. Zagat has offered high-quality reviews, based on user-written submissions and surveys, of tens of thousands of places for more than three decades. All of Zagat’s accurate scores and summaries are now highlighted on local Google+ pages.

Each place you see in Google+ Local will now be scored using Zagat’s 30-point scale, which tells you all about the various aspects of a place so you can make the best decisions. For example, a restaurant that has great food but not great decor might be 4 stars, but with Zagat you’d see a 26 in Food and an 8 in Decor, and know that it might not be the best place for date night.



Recommendations and reviews from people you know and trust 

Your friends know what you like, and they probably like the same things you do. That’s why the opinions of people in your circles are front and center. If you search for [tacos] on Google+ Local, your results might include a friend’s rave review of the Baja-style taco stand in your neighborhood. And if you’re searching on Google or Google Maps for a great place to buy a gift for that same friend, your results might include a review from her about a boutique she shops at all the time.



You can also share your opinions and upload photos. These reviews and photos will help your friends when they’re checking out a place, and are also integrated into the aggregate score that other people see. The more you contribute, the more helpful Google+ Local will be for your friends, family and everyone else.

Whether it’s a block you’ve lived on for years or a city you’ve never been to before, we hope Google+ Local helps you discover new gems.



Today is just the first step, and you’ll see more updates in the coming months. If you’re a business owner, you can continue to manage your local listing information via Google Places for Business. Soon we’ll make it even easier for business owners to manage their listings on Google and to take full advantage of the social features provided by local Google+ pages. Get more information on our Google and Your Business Blog.



Posted by Avni Shah, Director of Product Management