With over 940,000 followers, H&M captivates Google+ users with exclusive content

When H&M produces hot new collections, the Swedish fashion retailer knows just how to get the word out. With around 2,500 stores spread across 44 markets, not only does the company engage in traditional forms of marketing, but also integrates its social media with other communication activities. An early adopter of Google+, today H&M has more fans on the platform than any other retail brand – over 940,000 followers.



Unique, exclusive content wins followers

Instead of replicating the experience of shopping in the store or on the website, their page supplies a steady stream of interactive content tailored specifically to the Google+ audience. H&M publishes unique coverage, including a captivating range of exclusive collection previews, contests and behind the scenes footage, such as a Vogue editor preparing for an H&M photo shoot. Their most popular posts are the ones for their top collections with Beckham, Versace and Marni.



Using ripples to understand trendsetting

H&M has a very high rate of shared posts. Their team can “View Ripples” to see who has shared content and what has been said. In this way, the ripples feature lets H&M see how posts spread across Google+, who’s sharing and resharing the content and whose opinions matter. The feature can be used to identify influencers and see how communities form around content. The larger the circles in ripples, the larger the reach they might have.


Social extensions to integrate their social strategy into search

Another feature H&M uses are social extensions in its AdWords advertising. Social extensions help the company obtain a higher number of brand recommendations, +1’s and direct traffic to their Google+ page, effectively increasing their number of followers by doing so. On average H&M has achieved a 22% CTR uplift on all their AdWords campaigns thanks to implementing social extensions.



It’s all adding up...



All of this has contributed in great levels of engagement from fans with the following results so far: 

• Average number of +1’s per post: 72 


• Average number of reshares per post: 11 


• Average number of comments per post: 22

To learn more about H&M’s inspirational example, read the full case study here.



Posted by Natalia Cano, PMM Google+ for Businesses

GoV3: It's time to Upgrade

Last week, I mentioned in my Fab Friday post that it’s been two years since the deprecation of V2 of the Google Maps JavaScript API. In those two years, we’ve seen the number of sites using the Google Maps API grow from 350,000 to 800,000, and we have happily seen many sites switch from V2 of the Google Maps API to V3. As we have less than a year before the end of the deprecation period for the Maps API V2, it’s time to remind  everyone else to upgrade to the latest version of the Google Maps API.



With that in mind, Thor Mitchell, Product Manager for the Google Maps API, will sit down Thursday night 18:30 Pacific Time with me and Chris Broadfoot to discuss the benefits of V3, how to migrate from V2, and any other questions you might have about the Maps API. We’ll answer any questions you post on Google Moderator and join us live in the hangout. For those of you not able to join, you can view the video later, which we will post to this blog and to our Google+ Page.



We will also be conducting regular office hours every week, alternating between Sydney and Mountain View friendly times. You can ask your questions about upgrading or anything else related to Google Maps. Just keep an eye on our Google+ Page for more information.



What do you get with V3? Here’s just a few features that are only available in V3:



Styled Maps

Distance Matrix

Places Library

Geometry Library

Weather Library

Circles and Rectangles

Marker Animation

And much more



So we look forward to seeing you in office hours, online, and at Google I/O!





Posted by Mano Marks, Google Maps Developer Relations Team

Map of the Week: Nature Valley Trail View

Map of the Week: Nature Valley Trail View

Why we like it: This map has a lot of great qualities. In particular: It’s a great example of custom Street View panoramas in the Google Maps API and it’s a great example of using the Google Maps API as the centerpiece of a interactive marketing campaign with a positive goal.



Launched in March 2012, Nature Valley Trail View uses custom Street View panoramas to take viewers through select national parks in the United States. What really impressed us is the number of custom Street View panoramas. Taking DIY to a whole new level, the developers of this site even created their own cameras to build upon the imagery that’s already available in the Google Maps API.



According to Nature Valley, the site is about supporting the causes that are important to its customers. This site is part of larger partnership between Nature Valley and the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit group that supports national parks in the U.S.







In using the Google Maps API, Nature Valley Trail View has proven that it’s possible to create marketing collateral that provides real value to a customer. Below is a short video from Nature Valley explaining the origins of the projects.







Above all, this Google Maps API implementation reminds us that many images can be shared as a Google Street View like experience. So if you would like to have your own Street View panoramas (to share with the world or just a small group of people) it’s possible to pick up a camera and create your own great imagery.



Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Google Maps API Product Marketing Manager

Announcing New DoubleClick Ad Exchange Features: Improved Ad Review Center and Publisher Toolbar

We have been listening to your feedback on Ad Exchange ad controls and we’re excited to announce some new enhancements to save you time and give you even more control to manage which ads run on your site.



New controls in the Ad Review Center

The new Ad Review Center gives you complete transparency into the ads showing on your site. Ad Review Center now shows you ads of all targeting types that have appeared on your pages including real time bidding ads (RTB) and enables you to review and take action on them.



New features and benefits of Ad Review Center include:

• More ad targeting types: You can now easily review and take action on ads of all targeting types -- contextually-targeted, placement-targeted, interest-based, and Real Time Bidded ads.


• Ads ranked by impressions: To ensure that you’re always reviewing the most important ads first, we now show ads ranked by the number of impressions that they’ve received. With ads that you’re holding for review, we show the ads according to the number of impressions that we project they will receive.


• Take action on individual or bulk ads: You can now easily block ads individually or in bulk by simply clicking on an ad or highlighting multiple ads at once.


• Pre-approve and block AdWords accounts: For clarity, we've changed the term "advertiser" to "AdWords account." You’ll find your lists of pre-approved and blocked AdWords accounts on the Settings tab.


• Renamed tabs: We’ve updated the names of the tabs to more clearly explain their purpose.

This version of the Ad Review Center uses graphic technology that is too intensive for older browsers. If you use IE7 and are unable to upgrade, consider installing Chrome Frame, an open source plug-in that enables older versions of IE to correctly render all the newest features in Ad Exchange.

If you’ve used the Ad Review Center in the past, the new version is live in your account now. If you haven’t yet enabled this feature, visit the Allow & Block ads tab to get started.



New Publisher Toolbar

The new Google Publisher Toolbar, a Chrome extension, makes it easy to manage your ads without visiting the Ad Review Center. It displays a variety of information about your Ad Exchange and Google AdSense ads, including alert bar notifications, details about current impressions, revenue stats, ad slots, buyers, and creatives on any site where your ad tags are running when you use a Chrome browser. Publishers can also easily block ads in real-time and report any issues to Google right from within the toolbar.



To learn more about Ad Review Center and Google Toolbar, register for one of the webinars on June 14th or contact your Ad Exchange account representative.



Ad Review Center & Google Toolbar US Webinar

Thursday, June 14th at 11am PDT (1pm CST, 2pm EDT)

Register HERE



Ad Review Center & Google Toolbar EMEA Webinar

Thursday, June 14th at 3pm GMT (7am PST, 10am EDT)

Register HERE



Posted by Dan Stokeley, AdSense Product Manager and Drew Bradstock, Ad Exchange Publisher Product Manager

Third-party audience segments now available in the new DoubleClick for Publishers Platform (DFP)

Last week at DoubleClick Insights, we made a number of announcements across our suite of products, all with a common goal: to re-imagine how ads are bought and sold online. One of these announcements, which we believe help our publisher partners grow their businesses, is the ability for publishers to integrate their third-party audience segments in the new DoubleClick for Publishers platform (DFP).



This is the latest feature in our series of enhancements which puts publishers in control of audience management within the new DFP. This feature enables you to seamlessly work with a data provider with whom you have a relationship, directly in your DFP account. Third-party segments in the new DFP mirror the way they worked on the legacy DFP service, but have an improved billing integration. Billing for the data providers’ charges that you agree on can be integrated directly into your DFP invoice.



Third-party segments are fully integrated into your core ad serving workflow. Once you approve the segments in the DFP interface at the provided CPM cost, they are available as if they were your own segments.



This new feature allows you to forecast, traffic & report more easily; you can also augment your inventory offerings via DoubleClick Sales Manager.



There’s no implementation work, no additional third party pixels and no added latency.



We believe this will all make publishers’ life easier, enable better integration with your sales management tools, make your inventory more attractive, give you more control and give you additional flexibility and opportunities to maximize your revenues.



In the coming months you’ll see more announcements from us as we continue to release new features to help you use data more effectively in the new DFP.




Posted by Sean Harvey, Product Manager and Alok Sheth, Software Engineer

Connecting shoppers and great stores online

(Cross posted to the Official Google Blog)



Online shopping is great for many reasons, but most of all it’s a convenient and fast way to turn your intent to buy that new pair of running shoes, for example, into an actual purchase. But shoppers tell us they’re often nervous about buying from online stores they don’t know. We created the free Google Trusted Stores program to help solve this problem. When shoppers see the Google Trusted Store badge, they know in a snap they’re shopping with a reputable retailer and they can feel confident making an informed purchase.


We’ve been testing the program since last fall with about 50 online merchants and more than 10 million orders. It’s working even better than we hoped, generating positive feedback from shoppers and increasing sales for merchants. Starting today, Google Trusted Stores is open to all U.S. merchants who want to apply. 

Helping shoppers choose stores they can trust

When shopping online, you may come across the Google Trusted Store badge. Hover over it and you’ll see a “report card” which shows “grades” for that merchant’s shipping and service, including more precise metrics about what the grades mean. 

The Google Trusted Store badge and report card

This badge is only awarded to online stores that deliver a great overall experience, so even if you haven’t shopped with this merchant before, you can easily tell if they are trustworthy, ship quickly and reliably, and offer exceptional customer service. If there’s a problem with your purchase, we’re here to help. When you buy from a Google Trusted Store, you can opt in to get up to $1,000 lifetime purchase protection per shopper. And our dedicated customer service team is there to work with you and the merchant to assist in resolving the issue.

Helping merchants demonstrate their excellence and earn new business
Google Trusted Stores helps online stores attract new customers, increase sales and differentiate themselves by showing off their excellent service via the badge on their websites. Soon the badge will also appear on Google.com ads and in Google Shopping results.

Google Trusted Store badge on AdWords

Over the last nine months of the pilot, our tests show that participating in this program can help merchants big and small. For example, Wayfair, the largest online-only retailer of home goods and one of the top 50 largest online retailers as ranked by Internet Retailer, increased sales* on its site by 2.3 percent with Google Trusted Stores. And Beau-coup, a specialty online favors and gifts retailer, saw an 8.6 percent increase*. Take a look at our merchant success stories to learn more about how Google Trusted Stores has had a positive impact on website conversion rates and average order sizes for online retailers. 

Google Trusted Stores is entirely free, both for shoppers and for online stores. We’re still testing the most helpful ways to display Trusted Stores information to shoppers, so you may see different versions, or none at all, while we conduct experiments. If you’re a merchant and would like to participate in the Google Trusted Stores program, please apply. 

Posted by Tom Fallows, Group Product Manager, Google Shopping



*Increased sales percentages are based on a combination of uplift in conversion and average order size.

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