Previously with Legacy campaigns the only location function available was to set geo targeting for the locations you wanted to target or wanted to exclude. Now with the introduction of Enhanced campaigns as well as still being able to this you are now able to increase and decrease bids for specific locations.

This development is one of great potential, especially for companies with a localised client base such as a restaurants, car garages & locksmiths. Even companies who are more national can benefit from this because if they may have stores in specific locations or generate more online sales from certain locations bids can be adjusted accordingly to suit this.
As the image below shows bids can be adjusted for cities, towns, counties or for a radius around a postcode but a default bid can still be left for all other locations.

The benefits of location bidding are that if you have a fixed business location bids can be increased close to this location. For example a storage company which has storage warehouses in specific locations can have bids increased for users who are searching for storage space from location within a certain radius of the warehouse. This would be of a benefit to the company because it is likely users will want to store their property somewhere close to where they are currently living, so by increasing the bid for these users it is likely an advert will be displayed in a higher position.

Looking at mobile, if tourists are visiting a city and search for say an Italian Restaurant if bids have been increased for searches made within a specific radius then based on the users mobile signal bids will be increased for these users.

As well as increasing bids to capture more users bids can be decreased if you wish to reduce exposure in certain locations. If a certain location has been harming overall performance for example with a low CTR or a high CPC then it would be worthwhile reducing the bid for this location.

You can review the locations where your users were when they conducted their search by looking at the location details within adwords as shown below.

From the data shown this decisions can be made on which locations to add a bid multiplier for whether this be an increase or a decrease.

Knowing where your customers can now become a real key factor in establishing an effective bidding strategy for your adwords account.

Google released the Google Glass terms last week, which state (to the surprise of many), that developers “may not serve or include any advertisements in your API Client.” This has been interpreted by some to mean that Google Glass will be an advertising free platform.

However, this is probably not the case and here is why:

First of all it is important to note that only third-party developers are (currently) prohibited from placing ads. Google itself is not bound by these app development rules. Many app developers create a “free” version of their apps which are supported through advertising. It is this particular form of advertising that Google wants to prevent. Some might even argue this is Google’s attempt at further controlling their advertising revenue streams considering the enormous reach of Google’s own Search & Display Network (Google Search, Shopping, Maps, Images, Groups and search partner sites). If Google is not careful this could potentially even lead to further antitrust implications.

We also have to keep in mind that the data collected by the sensor array of Glass is very valuable to Google’s Analytics programs and glass certainly will drive users to other advertisement revenue streams where said data will further contribute to personalised ads. Or in the words of Eric Schmidt “Mobile ads should ultimately be more valuable because we have more information about the consumer, because we’re connected to them.”

Google’s primary goal for the release of the consumer version will be mass-adoption. They can’t afford alienating potential buyers with any form of ad spam or an otherwise cluttered interface. Hardware performance is also problematic. The first generation of Glass will be severely underpowered, just like the first generation of Android phones released in 2008. However Android and the devices the OS is running on have evolved tremendously in just a few years and Glass will certainly follow this trend.

But there is more, much more, because Glass could potentially be the beginning of the future of advertising – Augmented Reality.

Augmented Reality

Real-time augmentation of the physical environment with virtual elements in semantic context offering a unique user-experience, is what some marketers believe to be the final frontier of advertising.

“Stop thinking of augmented reality as a business. It’s a browser,” states John Havens, founder of the H(app)athon Project.

Google Glass and the myriad of imitators it will spawn if it takes off (it surely won’t take long till we see “Samsung Galaxy Eye-wear” and “iGlasses”), will irrevocably change the way we perceive and interact with the world, which of course includes brands. The Internet has completely changed marketing over the past 20 years and while we probably (and hopefully) won’t see any ad spam aka “ADmented Reality” anytime soon, the “Outernet” is bound to revolutionise marketing in a similar way.

But what about adoption rates, you might ask. Flurry Analytics reported last August, that smart-phone adoption was 10 times faster than the PC revolution in the 80′s and three times faster than the social networking revolution (both still ongoing of course, as Eric Schmidt notable stated in a recent interview with the guardian, “we forget that the majority of people are not online and that they will come online, the majority of them in the next five years.”)

“If we go back look at how fast things are adopting lately compared to 10 to 15 years ago, we’re looking at mass adoption in 2015 or 2016,” says Andrew Couch, CEO of Candy Lab, another AR company.

According to Juniper Research’s study “Mobile Augmented Reality: Entertainment, LBS & Retail Strategies 2012 – 2017”, the industry expects to generate $300 million in AR related revenue through a mixture of advertising, paid apps and post- download content this year alone. Juniper expects that more than 2.5 billion AR apps will be downloaded by 2017, generating a Revenue of $5.2 billion in 2017 alone.

We certainly have to take these estimates with a grain of salt, considering junipers business model there is probably some bias at play, however, they also caution that lack of consumer awareness concerning AR remains a major hurdle. Technological limitations are also a huge concern (bandwidth, cameras, battery life etc.) that will provide a great challenge for manufacturers to live up to consumer expectations.

While we are just witnessing the dawn of the emergence of truly wearable computing, the biggest challenges to mass-adoption of AR Devices like Glass are perhaps human biology and sociology.

Who, except geeks would really want to wear Glass? Even if Glass becomes indistinguishable from regular prescription or sunglasses, Google is essentially attempting to convert us all into fighter pilots by means of heads-up displays. Surely the average person will find this disorienting, at the very least at first. Although we increasingly distract ourselves with our smart-phones, we are by no means used to having a permanent Terminator-style HUD of “assisting” data to process. Social etiquette is the other elephant in the room. Perhaps the ultimate factor deciding over Glasses success is not the user experience but the experience of those not using them. If early adopters don’t feel the social acceptance they desire by using a device that allows them to record people and events at all times (lifebits), they might abandon them quickly. Of course all of this has massive privacy implication and there are already those who sound the alarm, even going as far as launching a “Stop The Cyborgs” campaign.

But let’s assume all goes well for Google and Glass does take off, how will this inevitably impact advertising?

Billboard ads could potentially become personalised just like contextual online ads and we might see something completely different than the person next to us. The real game changer so to speak however will perhaps be the merging of augmented reality and gamification and here is an example:

Gamification

Google’s massive mobile augmented reality game – Ingress, demonstrates the potential AR and gamification united have and how it may change marketing.

Ingress is a virtual reality game developed by Google’s Niantic Labs where players earn virtual energy called XM and can then spend the XM on missions, located at widely-accessible public places. The game’s narrative is set around a global data battle consisting of “The Resistance” and “The Enlightened”. Ingress is however much more than just a game. It’s a means to collect massive amounts of GIS and other Data so valuable to Google’s core business and the reason it is a prime example for the concept of gamification. Ingress is also closely integrated with Google’s own social network google+.

The stories and missions feature already a number of US brands Including Hint Water, car rental service Zipcar, Jamba Juice an Chrome (San Francisco-based bag & apparel outfit with no relation). The challenge for Google is to successfully embed their advertising into the game’s narrative in a way that is not intrusive and that complements the game-play experience. Their first attempts to weave a subtle yet engaging form of advertising into Ingress include objectives directing players to sponsored Brands stores and scan in-game objects. Balancing unobtrusive integration while maintaining profitability for sponsors is certainly tricky. It is however in every company’s interest to participate in projects that not only feature their brand but also attract potential customers to their stores. Even if these individuals initially only just come to make some XM, chances are they purchase something while they are there. Not to mention the value of encouraging people to interact and engage with the brand, because the more in-depth consumers relationship become with a brand, the more affinity they will feel for it.

Google’s John Hanke stated that Google plans to make API’s available in the future, enabling other developers to build AR games based Google Maps.

The use of gamification to shape behaviour is exponentially growing, with the spending on it expected to increase from $242 million in 2012 to $2.8 billion in 2016, according to the California based technology research firm M2 Research. Large corporations and small businesses alike are adopting the technology. About 70 % of the top 2,000 global companies are predicted to use gamification applications for marketing and other purposes by 2014.

When asked if Google was really serious about Ingress or if it was just another experiment, Hanke said that Google takes it genuinely serious and aims to make Ingress as engaging as possible. The primary objective is officially to motivate people to explore their cites and others they visit (which is also the goal of Field Trip, another Google-Niantic app). The secondary goal is to encourage collaboration and cooperation, locally and globally, for the completion of missions. However, considering that about 96% (2011) of Google’s revenue comes from advertising, it is more than a little likely that Google plans to get more out of Ingress than just motivating people to leave their couch/chair. Ingress is currently in an invite-only public beta (only available for Android currently. If you use iOS and want to try AR games, you might want to take a look at AR Defender and Paranormal Activity) and meant to run for one and a half years once officially released, but a conclusion will probably not be reached until the game’s impact is felt on Google’s advertising services.

If all of this isn’t farfetched enough yet, let’s take this to the next level and imagine a future where everything is in one form or another a game, from workout to dating, thanks to extensive AR technology.

Exactly that is the premise of a brilliant (and creepy) short sci-fi film titled “Sight”, created as a grad project for Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, depicting a future with retinal implants and the merging of augmented reality, gamification and social media.

We are witnessing the advent of augmented reality and its logical conclusion in merging with gamification. These are exciting times ahead and once device manufacturers, especially Google as the lead innovator, are doing their part, it is up to us to get creative and start preparing to do digital marketing somewhat differently.

*Part 2 will take a more in-depth look at Google’s marketing strategy for Glass and the social ramifications of wearing and using Glass in public. Stay Tuned!

One of the most crucial changes between Enhanced and Legacy campaigns resides in its device targeting features, which will be discussed in this post.

It will now be made to control targeting of all devices from within a single campaign, instead of breaking them out into targeting separate devices.

Google are pitching this as a better way of advertising in a multi-device environment, claiming that Enhanced Campaigns will give advertiser better control over their targeting while minimising management time and size of accounts. However, control at the device level seems limited compared to traditional Legacy campaigns.

Desktop and tablet devices cannot be targeted separately

Google’s argument is that the difference between Desktop and Tablet behaviour is negligible.

Although it can be argued that the two devices are converging rapidly (see the new Windows 8 devices that can be used as both) past experience has shown that there can be great variation in terms of CPCs and CPAs and therefore efficiencies are going to be lost.

This may also mean a drop in performance for advertisers without a tablet-optimised website, as realistically tablet traffic cannot be excluded.

Mobile devices are now targeted by default

The only control left is to adjust mobile bids as a percentage of desktop/tablet.

Currently, bids can be adjusted only at campaign level but Google have just announced Adgroup-level mobile bid multiplier, which will be made available in May.

The only way to retain bid control at keyword level now would be to create a “mobile-only campaign” (though mobile only campaigns will now effectively cease to exist – as desktop bids must be in place to derive the mobile bids from these – there are discussions underway as to how to get around this with some novel ideas).

Due to the way Enhanced campaigns work, this may prove more complicated and time consuming. This situation is likely to increase competition and, as a consequence, we may see mobile CPCs go up.

Additionally, the ability to target to different device models or carriers will also disappear. Even though this functionality was used to the fullest only by a small minority of advertisers, there were differences (for example iPhone users’ propensity to buy) that was advantageous to capitalise on.

Quality score will now be unrelated to device

Going forward, quality score will reflect the keyword performance across all devices. Existing quality score can be maintained after the upgrade, providing that “keyword, ad, landing page, and device combinations” are preserved.

It is therefore crucial when upgrading/merging mobile-only campaigns, to copy existing ads into the upgraded campaign as mobile-optimised ads.

On the bright side

Despite some loss of control over more granular targeting methods, there are positives too.

Firstly, the change will mean efficiencies in terms of keyword list management, as all keywords will be added to the same list, regardless of the device. This should cut down campaign management time as there will be no duplicate campaigns.

Furthermore, cross-device tracking will make metrics like assisted conversions more meaningful and reliable.

Finally, Enhanced campaign will come with many new features such as “upgraded extensions” and the ability to track new conversion types such as calls and digital downloads.

Undoubtedly, a good degree of control is being taken away from advertisers, but many useful features have been added that may make up for it. As it is also undeniable that customer behavior and device usage is constantly changing, Enhanced campaigns may be a step in the right direction.

On a final note.. Shssh…… Don’t tell anyone, Google have announced via their weekly email update that the forced migration to Enhanced campaigns will start on July 22 2013

As of 1^st April, you won’t be able to include phone numbers in either ad text or site link extensions.

You might be concerned if a lot of your business is driven by phone calls, but don’t panic, one of the new features in the enhanced campaigns is an improved call extension, with more functions and settings available to make it work better for you.

Where you might not have used call extensions before as they appear whenever they are able to, you can now control when they show with scheduling so you can only receive calls when phone lines are open.  A word of warning on this, remember to look at your time zone setting within Google Adwords because if you want to target 8am till 8pm and your setting is for Pacific time zone (-8hrsGMT) then you will actually have phone numbers showing between 12am – 12pmGMT.

Google previously had a service called “call forwarding”, showing a unique phone number to show it was sourced from a PPC advert, but cost a minimum fee of $1 per call.  This is still available, but it is now FREE.  This allows you to see the full effect of using Google Adwords for direct points of contact.

Want to know quickly how many calls were effective for you?  You can now set up phone calls to measure conversions, all you need to do is enter a time limit and once this is exceeded on the call, a conversion is generated.

But I had different phone numbers in different adverts I hear you say.  This isn’t a problem.  With the old call extensions your phone number showed on every advert, well now you can create call extensions at ad group level as well.  Making it easier to show the correct number for the correct advert, this is ideal for businesses targeting geo-modified keywords for local offices.

Summary;

1) You can no longer include phone numbers in adverts and site link extensions.

2) Call forwarding is now free

3) Track conversions from phone calls by entering a timeframe considered a sale/lead.

4) Scheduling is now available for call extensions

5) Call extensions are able to be set at both campaign and ad group levels.

With the market share of mobile usage set to rise again this year, it makes sense to offer you potential customers/clients a way of directly contacting you.

On the 7^th October 2012 Google announced a simple way to do this, their very own Google Adwords business credit card. (powered by Barcleycard) http://www.google.co.uk/adwords/businesscredit/

It’s not a card for general use – ie: buying the latest game of FiFA or those La Boutin shoes you’ve always wanted,  It can only be used to pay for ads through Google.

And with Adwords being Google’s biggest source of revenue bringing in more than $36 billion (£23 billion) in 2011, it explains why they are enticing customers with this new venture.

This is a great way for all small businesses wanting to access higher credit amounts to fund their AdWords campaigns and be at the fore front of marketing .

And with businesses competing  for the same spots with the same keywords and the credit limit being described as ‘ample’ and ‘generous’ by Google , this couldn’t of been a better time for the internet search engine to introduce the Adwords credit card.

But before you get too excited this card will have the same credit limits and rates as most on the market so will be fluctuate depending on creditworthiness.

The most recent Internet Usage study carried out in France (September 2012) shows that the top 3 Groups visited were;

1) Google Sites with almost 40M unique visitors/month

2) Microsoft Sites with over 35M unique visitors/month

3) Facebook with over 31M unique visitors/month.

Within this study we can also see the top three websites visited;

1) Google with over 38M unique visitors/month

2) Facebook with over 31M unique visitors/month and

3) Youtube with over 27.5M unique visitors/month

Microsoft MSN/Windows Live (Bing) came 4^th just behind Youtube; with just under 27.5M unique visitors/month.

The top three websites that support & offer advertising are;

1) Google with over 38M unique visitors/month

2) Facebook with over 31M unique visitors/month and

3) Youtube with over 27.5M unique visitors/month

Microsoft MSN/Windows Live (Bing) came 4^th just behind Youtube; with just under 27.5M unique visitors/month.

Google is the number one search engine in France with approximately 90% of the market share; Bing is second and hovers around 3 – 4%. The French online market is considered to be very similar to the UK market (amount of users, popular sites, and search engine market share), however the French do not behave the same way as the British. In Britain the internet is used to research information and make purchases whereas the French mainly use the internet for communication (skype, messenger, email etc…)  and entertainment (streaming, youtube, dailymotion etc…), the French tend to be wary of buying online, they are very careful as to which websites they go to, to make purchases and are demanding as to prices, reviews and delivery options, they will generally go to a well-known, branded site to make any purchase. In a recent report it was stated that online purchasing had increased by 5% in Q3 of 2012 compared to Q3 of 2011, this represents 1.4 million more users having bought online, taking this to a total of 31.9 million online buyers this year, this could be a sign of a change in the attitude from the French towards the internet and an increase in confidence which in turn means this could be an excellent time to develop and strategies advertising campaigns on the French market.

The French Mobile Market

Approximately 22.3 million people have connected to the internet via a mobile device in Q3 of 2012, 23 million have a smartphone (17 million in Q3 2011) and 8.4% reported to use a tablet PC.  9 out of 10 mobile internet users say to have visited at least one site using their mobile device and over 7 out of 10 have downloaded at least one app.

The most popular Operating System (OS) is Android (Google) counting 45.1% of all mobile devices in Q3 2012, compared to 33.2% in Q3 2011, only 21% of devices use iOS (Apple)in Q3 2012 compared to 26.6% in Q3 2011, other Operating Systems are present on 33.9% of devices in Q3 2012 compared to 40.2% in Q3 2012.

The top three Company Groups to be visited using mobile devices are

1) Google – 17M unique visitors

2) Facebook – 14M unique visitors

3) Apple – 8.8M unique visitors

The top three Brands are

1) Google – 17M unique visitors

2) Facebook – 14M visitors

3) YouTube – 11.5M unique visitors

The top three sites are

1) Google.fr – 16M unique visitors

2) Facebook.fr – 14.5M unique visitors

3) YouTube.fr – 9.5M unique visitors

Mobile Internet usage is to continue growing in 2013 with the arrival of 4G and more attractive monthly mobile contracts, also the new Windows phone is hugely anticipated in France, this is a relatively new (as in the UK) and potentially huge market for advertisers to explore.

French Social Networking

82% of internet users are members of at least one social network, compared to 77% in 2011, and users are on average members of 3.5 social networks/sites, up form 2.8 in 2011. 54% of French internet users are on Facebook with 57% of them being women. Twitter has seen an increase in French users, now 12% of the online population with more men than women and more executives than employees, but even with this increase Twitter is still only in 9^th position of the most used Social Sites.

Only 2 other sites are within reachable distance of Facebook; Windows Live Messenger with 46% of the online population frequently logging on and Copains d’Avant, 33%. Copains d’Avant is one of the oldest French specific Social Networks (the other being Trombi) and although still having 33% of the online population logging on and being in 3^rd position of the most used Social Sites, it has seen a decrease of 16 points over the last four years.

The big winner of 2012 is Google+, which has had an increase of 9 points taking it to 21% of the online population having a Google+ profile and placing it in 6^th position of the most used Social Sites.

The top three most used Social Networks/Sites are

1) Facebook (54%)

2) Windows Live Messenger/ MSN Messenger (46%)

3) Copains d’Avant, (33%)

Other, sites/networks that are used in the UK are placed as follows

1) Youtube (24%)

2) Twitter (12%)

3) LinkedIn (9%)

4) MySpace (5%)

5) Spotify (4%)

6) Instagram (3%)

7) Flickr (2%)

8 )Foursquare  (1%)

9)Tumblr (1%)

10) Pinterest (1%)

95% of the French online population know Facebook, Facebook’s awareness in France has continued to grow since 2007 but it is followed very closely by YouTube (94%) and Twitter & Windows Live Messenger (89%).

Overall the demographics of the known Social Networks are all very similar, and Facebook is the only Social Network that over 90% of all demographics are aware of, Twitter however does have a stand out category with 94% of the 18-24 being of the network.

Again the winner of 2012 for the most know Social Network/ Site is Google+ with an increase of 15 points taking it to 79% of the online population being aware of it presence. The Professional Social Networks such as LinkedIn and Viadeo are also continuing their growth of popularity, LinkedIn gained 8 points taking it to 33% and Viadeo gained 4 points taking it to 31%.

Deezer enters the classification directly at the 8^th position (63%) ahead of Spotify at 20^th position with 19% of the online population being aware of its existence.

The top three most well known Social Networks/Sites are:

1) Facebook (95%)

2) YouTube (94%)

3) Twitter & MSN Messenger/ Windows Live Messenger, (89%)

Other, Sites/Networks that are well known in the UK are placed as follows:

1) Google+ (79%)

2) MySpace (61%)

3) LinkedIn (33%)

4) Flickr (22%)

5) Spotify (19%)

6) Instagram (19%)

7) Tumblr (11%)

8 ) Pinterest (7%)

9) Foursqure (5%)

Social Media in France is growing, 2010 – 2011 seemed to be balancing; however 2012 saw a huge jump in users, growth is forecast to continue but seeing 2012 proving the experts wrong we should be open to other eventualities.

Overall the French are aware of the Networks & Sites available to them and more and more of them are joining new Networks & Sites, however the majority do not tend use these sites to follow, comment or keep up to date with offers from Brands or Products they do however follow Musical artists and Actors to know what projects they have and to stay informed of any events happening.

* the following sites have been used to collect the data used in this blog

http://www.arcep.fr/

http://www.mediametrie.fr/internet/

http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm

One of these updates was the multiple & improved Dashboards, the ability to create up to 20 unique dashboards within any one profile. Dashboards basically allow you to review and report on a wide range of metrics, checking the performance of your site against a number of varying KPI’s.

Here at Latitude Express we primarily work with businesses that perhaps don’t have dedicated marketing departments to make the most of these improvements, and so this blog is aimed at helping you install some quick and easy Dashboard templates to your Analytics profile.

Finding the time to familiarise yourself with Google Analytics is often way laid by the day to day chores of running a business, and for many business owners the idea of creating custom dashboards is simply too time consuming to consider ahead of other more critical tasks.

So with this in mind we’ve chosen our top 5 Dashboard templates, focussing on metrics that we feel are key to monitoring and improving your business online, including Mobile, Social and Ecommerce.

Social media dashboard

URL: http://goo.gl/gafiH

Purpose

Back in March we discussed the launch of ‘Search Plus Your World’, highlighting the need for businesses to engage in social media more so than ever. This template tracks your traffic across platforms such as Facebook, Google + and Twitter amongst others.

Mobile ecommerce dashboard

URL: http://goo.gl/I322w

Purpose

It goes without saying that mobile search is and will continue to grow evermore over the course of 2012, the ability to market your business on this platform is going to be crucial. This template not only tracks revenue from mobile, but also highlight’s metrics such as keyword data, top content and page performance.

Site Performance dashboard

URL: http://goo.gl/eZfV5

Purpose

Once of Google’s goals is to provide users with the most relevant results and a greater user experience, and so faster sites increase user satisfaction. Therefore it’s important for any webmaster to know how Google views your site in terms page load time, helping you to create a smoother experience for your users

Engaged Traffic advanced segment

URL: http://goo.gl/4HFoo

Purpose

Review our social elements are impacting your website engagement. Compare social connected visits  against no social visits.

Daily Ecommerce report

URL: http://goo.gl/e0Ksy

Purpose

Great dashboard for any eCommerce website. Looking for product performance across multiple channels.

How to install them

Installing the dashboards templates is really easy. Simply log into your Google Analytics account, copy the URL and paste it into your browser, Analytics will automatically prompt you to choose the profile you want to install the dashboard into, and away you go!

This is great recognition for lots of hard work and dedication from all departments.

We obviously celebrated in style with a little help from Brewdog

More information can be found here

http://www.latitudegroup.com/blog/latitude-wins-best-ppc-and-seo-agency-at-how-do-awards/

and here http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/other-media/how-do-awards-2012-and-the-winners-are…-20120427100957146

For over 10 years we have continued to hone our skills and best practice on tools and platforms such as AdWords, Facebook and Google Analytics allowing us not only to advise our clients on getting the most from their online business, but also offer expert in-house online marketing training and consultancy.

The main areas which we provide training are detailed in our training section, however we will always put together bespoke training to suit a company’s business needs and requirements. Therefore, we can cover a mixture of all of the training sessions we offer, or a selection if this is more suitable.

We also offer training for Affiliate Marketing, Display Advertising, Writing Web Content and Facebook & Twitter.

Recently we had a Social Media Training day at Salford University in Media City, Manchester with Mark Johnson (Head of Training at Latitude) and received some very good feedback from all the executives who attended the event.

Last day of #ilmeast and we’re kicking off with hyperlocal.

#ilmeast interview with David Hornik about his investments in local media services.

Time for the Ted Leonis keynote