It's important that your AdWords advertising helps you reach your business goals successfully, so here are 5 short videos to help you make sure your account is working as effectively as possible.

1. AdWords Account structure

This video shows you how a few minor changes to your account structure can make a big difference to your advertising performance:



2. AdWords budgeting tips

This video walks you through three simple ways to make your budget work better for you:



3. Improve keyword performance

This video explains the three simple steps you can take to improve your keywords and make sure you're effectively reaching your potential customers:



4. Improve ad texts

This video shows you how to write engaging ad texts to attract more customers:



5. Tracking results

This video shows you how to track and understand your AdWords results in order to fine tune your advertising:



We hope you find this series of videos useful in improving your AdWords performance and increasing conversions. Let us know what you think.

Posted by Mary Healy, Google AdWords team.

Over the next few weeks, a new set of reports called AdWords Search Funnels (beta) will be made available in your AdWords account, in the "Conversions" section under the Reporting tab. To see data in these reports, you'll need to track conversions with AdWords Conversion Tracking or import goals or transactions into AdWords from Google Analytics. We are adding these reports to give you more insight into the ads your customers interact with during their shopping process, before converting on your site, so you can make even more informed decisions about the performance of your keywords, ad groups and campaigns.

What are AdWords Search Funnels?

Currently, conversions in AdWords are attributed to the last ad clicked before the conversion happened. However, it's likely in some cases that customers perform multiple searches prior to finally converting on your site. Advertisers have told us they'd love to see these clicks and impressions and now you can!

AdWords Search Funnels is a set of reports describing the click and impression behavior leading up to a conversion for Google.com search ads. These reports provide data on how "upper-funnel" keywords behave on the conversion path prior to the last ad click. In addition to a Top Conversions report, Search Funnels consists of 7 reports including: Assisted Conversions, First and Last Click Analysis, Time Lag, and Path Length. Take a look at this video for an overview of the new reports.



Why is this useful?

By showing which ads your customers saw and clicked before ultimately converting, Search Funnels gives a more complete picture of the value of your keywords, ad groups and campaigns. Let's look at an example.

An online vacation service, called Flyaway Vacations, is running AdWords campaigns for vacation packages in Hawaii. Their ads link to a site where visitors can book any or all parts of a package that includes flights, hotel, car rental, and surf lessons. Suppose on March 10, someone searched for "hawaii vacation" and saw, then clicked on an ad for Flyaway's Hawaii package. A click was registered in their AdWords account. Then, two days later, the same person searched for "flights to hawaii" and saw another ad for Flyaway, but didn't click. An impression was registered in Flyaway's AdWords account. Finally, three days later, the same person searched one more time, this time for "flyaway hawaii." This time they clicked the ad, visited the site, and purchased the Hawaii vacation package.




Instead of showing only a purchase conversion for the "flyaway hawaii" keyword, Search Funnels will show an assist click for the keyword "hawaii vacation" and an assist impression for the keyword "flights to hawaii". Testing the value of assist clicks and impressions is important for evaluating and understanding the true value of all of your keywords.

In addition, Search Funnels help advertisers understand the keywords seen by converters, and also those not seen. For example, in the Flyaway campaign, its possible that another keyword, such as "hawaii surf lessons," didn't contribute any assist clicks or impressions, or last click conversions, indicating this may be a keyword that is providing little conversion value. Assist information is an additional data point you can use when making strategic budgeting decisions, from the campaign level down to the keyword level.

Search Funnels also show the average number of clicks and impressions prior to conversion (Path Length), and amount of time it takes a customer to convert (Time Lag) after seeing or clicking on your ads for the first time. These breakdowns can help you understand customers' behavior and create strategies around that information. For instance, Time Lag can help you determine lead time for seasonal campaigns and Path Length can help you understand and target repeat visitors.



Note: Over the next few weeks, the Search Funnels beta will be rolled out gradually to all accounts. The Search Funnels reports are only available by logging into your AdWords account. They are activated when you have AdWords Conversion Tracking running and will only show data for keywords that show up in at least one conversion path. Search Funnel data is currently limited to search ads showing on Google.com, for ad impressions and clicks within 30 days of the conversion.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Product Marketing Manager

As an enterprise-class web analytics solution, Google Analytics not only provides site owners with information on their website traffic and marketing effectiveness, it also does so with high regard for protecting user data privacy.  Over the past year, we have been exploring ways to offer users more choice on how their data is collected by Google Analytics. We concluded that the best approach would be to develop a global browser-based opt-out plug-in to allow users to opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics.  Our engineers are now hard at work finalising and testing this opt-out functionality.  We look forward to making it available to our users in the coming weeks.

Posted by Amy Chang, Group Product Manager, Google Analytics 

Today we wanted to let you know about free online training modules available from Google.

 
The modules cover a variety of topics and below we've highlighted some conversion related courses that we think will interest our Conversion Room visitors.  

Each course is 15-20 minutes long and is available on demand, so you can learn from a Google expert at a time that's convenient for you!

The Google AdWords Online Classroom can be found here. And below you can find out more about a selection of the courses on offer...


Maximise your advertising ROI with Conversion Optimiser
Save time and increase your profits with Conversion Optimiser, a free AdWords bidding feature that allows you to set a maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Join the product team for an overview of how Conversion Optimiser works and learn how you can get more conversions at a lower cost for your AdWords search and content campaigns. This course would suit advertisers who want to focus on maximising conversions through AdWords.

Track your AdWords ROI using Google Analytics
Learn about Google Analytics and how it can provide valuable insights into your online business. This course will cover the creation of a new Analytics account, how to link it to your AdWords account, and how to install the Analytics code on your website to begin tracking visitor activity and conversions. This course would suit AdWords users who are not currently using Google Analytics or users who are new to the product.

Set up your Analytics account to track ROI
Correct set up is essential to ensure that you are making decisions based on accurate data. We will cover advanced implementation issues that will give you the confidence to make effective decisions on where to spend your marketing budget and areas of your site that could be optimised. This course would suit advertisers with more complex websites, such as subdomains or 3rd party shopping carts.

Use reports in Analytics to improve your AdWords return-on-investment
Learn how to interpret your Google Analytics Reports to identify areas of development for your AdWords campaigns. Get insight into evaluating data to identify focus points and optimise your AdWords performance. This course would suit advertisers who have already set up Google Analytics and are tracking data.

Get the most from your website with Website Optimiser
With Google's free Website Optimiser, you can test different lay-outs for pages of your website, and measure exactly which one generates the most sales or leads. We will provide you with an introduction to website testing, including how you can set up Website Optimiser and get testing yourself. This course would suit advertisers who are actively tracking their website's conversions and who are looking to make further site changes to improve their conversion rates.

Visit the site today and bookmark the page so you can take advantage of these free trainings at any time. 

Posted by Jo Hainsworth, Google Team.

Today we're sharing the last in a series of 3 posts showing you different ways to achieve a similar reporting overview for activities across multiple regions and languages for e-commerce websites.

Method 3: Roll up reporting, multiple domains and a single payment gateway

Say you have several domain names, one per country eg: example.com, example.es, example.fr, example.co.uk, but all of these websites use a common payment gateway example-payment.com.

How do you track the performance of all stores in a single account (profile) whilst being able to report on important metrics, such as revenue, or reports like goal conversion funnel visibility for each store?

Step 1) Recommended Google Analytics Tracking code configuration

1. Create a single Google Analytics profile to track all domains

2. Use the same tracking code number (UA-XXXXX-X) for all domains, and customise it to track visits across domains see below.

3. Call _setCustomVar() at visitor level scope and populate with store information for each language domain but not your payment gateway domain.

Note: By setting the custom variable at the visitor level on your store domains, you can track the visitors originally visited store information in the _utmv cookie. This value is then able to be passed between domains using cross domain tracking in step 2).

Code for all pages in example.com and any subdomains of example.com:


<script type="text/javascript">
try{
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setDomainName(".example.com");
pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);
pageTracker._setAllowHash(false);
pageTracker._setCustomVar(1, "store", "us", 2);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>


Code for all pages in example.es and any subdomains of example.es:

<script type="text/javascript">
try{
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setDomainName(".example.es");
pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);
pageTracker._setAllowHash(false);
pageTracker._setCustomVar(1, "store", "es", 2);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

Code for all pages in example.fr and any subdomains of example.fr:

<script type="text/javascript">
try{
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setDomainName(".example.fr");
pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);
pageTracker._setAllowHash(false);
pageTracker._setCustomVar(1, "store", "fr", 2);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

Code for all pages in example.co.uk and any subdomains of example.co.uk:

<script type="text/javascript">
try{
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setDomainName(".example.co.uk");
pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);
pageTracker._setAllowHash(false);
pageTracker._setCustomVar(1, "store", "uk", 2);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

Code for all pages in example-payment.com and any subdomains of example-payment.com

<script type="text/javascript">
try{
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setDomainName(".example-payment.com");
pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);
pageTracker._setAllowHash(false);
if (pageTracker._getVisitorCustomVar(1) != undefined) {
var langPath = '/' + pageTracker._getVisitorCustomVar(1) + location.pathname;
pageTracker._trackPageview(langPath);
}
else {
pageTracker._trackPageview();
}
} catch(err) {}
</script>

Step 2) Call _link() or _linkByPost() in all links and forms between each domain, as per the standard cross domain instructions under step 3.

Tracking code example-payment.com explained:

<script type="text/javascript">
try{
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-X");
pageTracker._setDomainName(".example-payment.com");
pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);
pageTracker._setAllowHash(false);

The first part of the tracking code is consistent with the other domains. However notice that we do not call the _setCustomVar() method this time.

If we did set a custom variable on the example-payment.com domain, it would override the previously set custom variable for each of your store domains.

if (pageTracker._getVisitorCustomVar(1) != undefined) {

Using an if statement, we check that the returned variable is not equal to undefined. The _getVisitorCustomVar() method accepts an argument, which is the index we stored our custom variable in during our tracking code customisation. In our example the index is equal to 1.

Hence if we used slot #2 and we called:

pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, "store", "es", 2);

We would need to call:

pageTracker._getVisitorCustomVar(2);

To return the desired value es.

Next we define a custom variable langPath:

var langPath = '/' + pageTracker._getVisitorCustomVar(1) + location.pathname;

We prefix the value with a forward slash '/' then we obtain the value in the custom variable pageTracker._getVisitorCustomVar(1). Next we call the location.pathname which will return the relative URL on our example-payment.com domain.

pageTracker._trackPageview(langPath);
}

We then pass the langPath value into our _trackPageview() method. So if the relative URL on our payment domain was /payment it would now become /es/payment as far as Google Analytics is concerned.

else {
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

Finally, if for some reason our custom variable is not set or is undefined, we will still track the visit and pageview on the payment domain example-payment.com, but it will default to the normal relative URL path eg: /payment and won't be prefixed with a language value.

This modification makes our Goal / Funnel set up a breeze later on.

Step 3) View revenue metrics per store

Once you have completed step 1) and step 2), go to the Visitors -> Customised Variables -> Store report. Select the e-commerce tab.

You should now get a performance break down for each of your stores, showing visits, revenue, transactions, average value, conversion rate and per visit value.

Note: If different languages / domains use different currencies, your Google Analytics profile can only be set to 1 currency type at a time, so you will need to convert all transactions to the same base currency.

Google Analytics does not perform any currency conversions for you. The currency setting will simply prefix the numeric revenue values with the appropriate currency symbol.

Step 4) Goal Funnel Reports

View your conversion funnel performance for each store / domain when the same URL structure is used, but the initial funnel steps take place on different domains such as that shown in the diagram below:

We will need to add a filter (see step 4) to expose the hostname in Google Analytics.

Step 4a) Create a duplicate profile (profile for an existing domain)

Give this Profile a name such as "Goal / Funnel Reports". You will now have something like this:

Step 4b) Create the following filter and apply it to your "Goal / Funnel Reports" profile.

Note: We create a second profile because it's generally good practice to have a "raw" or unfiltered profile in your Google Analytics account. Filters permanently alter the data that gets stored in your profile. Therefore the unfiltered profile can be viewed as a backup of your Google Analytics data.

Our Content reports will now have the hostname (domain name) prepended to them like so:

Note: This filter is also useful if you are using sub-domains.

Step 4c) Configure goal / funnel reports

We now configure our goal/funnel reports by entering the full URL including hostname into the respective fields.

Also keep in mind we override the payment domain URL with our language prefix in step 1) with our custom tracking code set up.

Example: Spain (es) Checkout Complete

Important! check the required step box

Description	URL	Name
Goal	www.example-payment.com/es/thank-you	Spain Checkout Complete
step 1	www.example.es/add-to-cart	add to cart
step 2	www.example.es/shipping	shipping details
step 3	www.example-payment.com/es/payment	payment

Repeat step 4c) for each individual store that needs a Goal Funnel report.

Step 5) Go to your Goal -> Funnel Visualisation reports to see an overview of each of your goals performance by store.

It should look something like this:

Summary

The following table is designed to help get an overview of each technique:

Structure Attributes	Method 1	Method 2	Method 3
Complexity	Simple	Intermediate	Complex
Goal/funnel setup	As normal	As Normal	Complex
Tracking code customisation	Minimal (only e-commerce receipt page)	Complex	Complex
Filters required	No	No	Yes
Roll-up reporting	Yes	No	Yes
Custom reporting Required?	To split revenue	No	No
Advanced segments Required?	To split revenue	No	To split site traffic
Custom variable slot	No	No	1 slot required
e-commerce currency	Only 1 currency possible	Unique currency for each profile	Only 1 currency possible
Timezones	Only 1 Timezone for all languages	Unique timezone for each profile	Only 1 Timezone for all languages / domains
Report sampling	More likely due to roll up structure	Less Likely	More likely due to roll up structure

Go to Method 1 or Method 2

Each technique has its own pro's and con's. The examples is this series are intended to provide an overview of the different ways you can configure Google Analytics to achieve your reporting goals. Your reporting needs may vary and as a result may require further customisations.

If you have specific reporting needs, account structure or customisation requirements not covered in the above article, we highly recommend contacting a Google Analytics Authorised Consultant for additional help.

Posted By Gavin Doolan, Google Analytics Team