Accelerate: A deeper look at attribution

Today, we're kicking off an educational series about accelerating your affiliate marketing business. We’ll be sharing insights that emerged from the Google Affiliate Network Client Summit, an annual event in July that brings together affiliate advertisers, publishers, partners and Google. The theme for the event this year was Accelerate, highlighting Google’s commitment to growing the affiliate channel for all.



In today’s post, you’ll hear from Neil Hoyne, Google's Global Program Manager for Attribution. Neil leads efforts to bring companies stronger insights into the measurement and valuation of their customers' journeys, working to improve conversion rates through better utilization of Google Analytics as well as advanced attribution modeling.

At the Google Affiliate Network Client Summit, Neil led an engaging session on attribution, encouraging companies to identify more actionable performance metrics and build stronger industry relationships as the advertising market continues its rapid evolution away from last-click valuation. Watch the video below to learn more.

We invite you to continue this conversation with Neil by sharing your comments on this post or via Twitter (@nhoyne).



Posted by Erica Sievert, Product Marketing Manager

Google and GroupM Fill Retail & Restaurant Marketers’ Carts with Digital Trends and Insights at Spark Event

The second event in our Spark education series we co-hosted with GroupM Next was hosted today,
focusing on trends, research and digital opportunities in Retail and QSR. Launched in June, Spark is a series of custom, co-programmed events created to deliver unique education and innovation experiences in an intimate setting for GroupM clients and media agencies.

Spark: Retail & Restaurants took place in New York with brand marketers from retailers and
restaurants, and media professionals from Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare in attendance. After a welcome from GroupM Next CEO Chris Copeland, Google’s Torrence Boone, Managing Director, Agency Business Development, and Brett Goffin, Emerging Business Lead, Mobile, as well as Pat Monteleone and Jesse Wolfersberger from GroupM Next, Bryan Gildenberg of Kantar, Steven Rosenblatt of Foursquare and Tim Zagat, co-founder and CEO of Zagat, took the stage to share insights into the intersection of retail and digital, and ways that brands in these industries can benefit from what’s taking place.

Hot topics included:

• Shopper/consumer trends
  


• Converting consumer demand and desire into action
  


• New research from GroupM Next on showrooming and how to keep buyers in-store
  


• Using digital innovatively to build brands and reach customers 1:1 through marketing

In-store shopping. E-commerce. A digital footprint. Mobile. Local visibility. Price comparison…and more. These are all things retail and restaurant marketers should be factoring in their marketing strategies to maximize traffic, engagement and revenue. With these in the forefront, retail and QSR companies will prosper in today’s digitally-driven world. For the future, as brands engage more strategically and proactively via channels and emerging platforms that enable hyper-targeting across digital media, social interaction and location-based targeting, they’ll attract and retain loyal customers, while emerging ahead of the competition.

Launched: Switch between your preferred currency and timezone

With our international launch earlier this year, we enabled you to set your preferred currency and timezone. We’re pleased to announce that if you changed your settings, you can now switch between your preferred settings and the default currency (USD) and timezone (Central Time) when viewing reports. This enhancement allows you to view your reports in the format that's most relevant to you, and is available for all reports except for payment reports.



 Switch between your preferred and default currency:

Switch between your preferred and default timezone:

If you're a Google Affiliate Network publisher, please note that you can only view the reporting currency you’ve chosen in your AdSense account. It’s not possible to change this once you’ve set it.



Posted by: Kurt Spoerer, Google Affiliate Network Product Manager

Scheduled Release track features update 8/14/12

Calendar: Users have had the ability to change the colors of calendars from a default color palette. Users can now choose a custom color if the default palette does not meet their needs.



The following features are intended for release to these domains on August 21th:

Spreadsheets: Users now have the ability to name a range in a spreadsheet. You can then protect such a named range instead of protecting the whole sheet. You can also use the name of the range in formulas.

Spreadsheets: Users can now pick the color and style of cell borders. This features is accessible as an added option through the cell borders toolbar button.



Release track: 

Scheduled



Editions included: 

Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education



For more information:

http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=63175

http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=37227



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Map of the Week: runtastic PRO

Map of the Week: runtastic PRO

Why we like it: runtastic is using Google Earth to show a user 3D Earth View video playback of every run or GPS activity they track with runtastic PRO for Android. In addition to retracing a route, runtastic displays the time, pace, elevation, places of interest, and more. Users can also choose to review their activities with three zoom levels and three playback speeds.


[Editor’s note: For this week’s “Map of the Week” post, we’ve asked Stephan Brunner, Head of Android Development at runtastic, to write a guest blog post about what his team used to create runtastic Earth View - Paul Saxman]


Whether you’re running your first half marathon, biking across the Golden Gate Bridge, or hiking in Nepal, runtastic’s Google Earth playback feature allows you to hold on to the memory and imagery of your activity.


How do we make this happen? The runtastic app captures GPS coordinate data and transforms it into a KML file, and then starts the Google Earth app with an Android Intent, passing a reference to the file in the Intent URI. The Google Earth app loads the track and takes it from there.









The <gx:Track> and <gx:Tour> extension to KML are the perfect tools for making the new 3D experience happen. The <gx:Track> element contains the entire GPS data recorded by the runtastic app, and <gx:Tour> defines the camera animations, overhead view and angle. The Google Earth app matches the elements of both lists using the time-span information from each list element. The result is a smooth animation of the track being painted based on the data from a run, which makes the user feel like they’re flying along it!

With this great new 3D Earth View, we think that there is no reason to stay on the couch. Get out there and record some amazing activities!



Posted by Paul Saxman, Google Maps API Developer Relations Team

New security settings for Google Apps mobile management

On August 2nd we released additional security settings for mobile management in the Google Apps administrator control panel.



- IP whitelist for Google Sync (ActiveSync)

- Google Sync: Enforce delete as trash

- Enable/disable user remote wipe

- Only enforce available policies on older Android devices

- Enable/disable Google Now



Languages Supported:

All languages



Editions included:

Google Apps for Business, Government and Education



For more information:

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2012/08/make-mobile-more-manageable.html

http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408902

http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=173390#user



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Introducing DFA Basics for Traffickers Online training

At DoubleClick, we are always looking for new ways to help our clients gain expertise in using our products. So, we are pleased to announce the DFA Basics for Traffickers online training course for new DFA users looking to learn the fundamentals of third-party ad serving and how to use DFA to manage online display advertising campaigns. While we have a robust offering of classroom training opportunities, we realize that schedules may not always permit you to attend in person.

This interactive course puts you in the role of a new hire at an ad agency. Under the guidance of a fictitious ad executive, you’ll navigate modules at your own pace to learn how to manage online ad campaigns for a “big account.”

Modules cover trafficking, including managing ads, placements, and creatives; creating Floodlight tags for conversion tracking; and reporting, with a focus on DFA Reporting. Complex concepts, such as 1x1 and click tracker tags, are presented lightheartedly in animated videos, and how-to demonstrations are sprinkled throughout the course.

DFA Basics for Traffickers online training is offered in English and will be available in multiple languages soon. You can register here (sign-on required; click the link, then locate “DFA Basics for Traffickers Online” course at the top of the Search Results).

Posted by Jessica Valerio McGovern, Product Training Specialist