We've moved! Please subscribe to the Google Marketing Platform blog for updates





Posted:
A recent study by eMarketer estimates that more than 25% of US digital display dollars will come through real-time bidding (RTB) by 2016. As brand dollars move to this channel, publishers are left to answer a few key questions.

Over the next few weeks, join leaders in the online publishing business as they share their views on programmatic buying and its implications for online advertising.

Log in with your Google+ account and tune into the Think with Google +page at 1:30 PM ET tomorrow, November 29. Rob Beeler, VP - Content & Media at AdMonsters, will interview Curt Hecht, Chief Revenue Officer, The Weather Company, about the future of this technology.

Posted by Alex Shellhammer, Product Marketing Manager

Posted:
Have you ever struggled with implementing new marketing and measurement tools on your website? For many people, deploying data collection “tags” (like conversion tracking, remarketing, audience reporting and analytics) can take weeks or months. Worse, the tag implementation is often incorrect, meaning you’re missing out on valuable information about your site and its users.

It doesn’t need to be difficult. We recently held a webinar to introduce users to Google Tag Manager, a free tool that helps marketers and IT departments manage their marketing and measurement tags quickly and easily. Watch the video here to learn more about:
  • Overall benefits and features of using Google Tag Manager
  • A quick demonstration of how to deploy a new tracking tag
  • Tips for getting your company started with Google Tag Manager



In addition to this webinar, we’ll be hosting a technical webinar in January to help new users through the nuts and bolts of installing Google Tag Manager (with lots of concrete examples). Stay tuned -- we’ll share registration information in a future blog post, or you can check back on the Learn with Google webinar site.

Read on for responses to some of the top questions we received during the webinar.

Questions and Answers

Where can I find out more about the core concepts described in the webinar?
To learn more about the Google Tag Manager management interface, please visit our Help Center -- you may want to start with our Before you Begin article. There you can find more information about key concepts like Tags, Rules, and Macros. For developers interested in how to implement Google Tag Manager, please visit our developer documentation. Or if you’d like help with implementation, you can contact one of our Partners. You can also ask questions (and find responses to questions from others) on the Google Tag Manager product forum.

What happens to historical data if we move to Google Tag Manager?
All of your historical data should be preserved when you move to Google Tag Manager. Google Tag Manager only changes the way that tags are deployed and managed on your site, it does not change the way data is collected.

How would you migrate a tag?
Follow these steps to migrate tags -- whether it’s a single tag or all the tags on your site. If you’re just getting started, take a look at our Before you Begin article.
  • Create a Google Tag Manager Account and a Container associated with that account.
  • Install that Container code snippet on every page of your website (so that it appears immediately after the opening <body> tag). The container should be empty.
  • Map your site - thinking about what data you want to collect, what events you want to track, and which tags you want to use to track that data. You should think about where your current tags are implemented, but now is a great time to rethink your overall data collection goals and start fresh.
  • (Optional) If you would like to make use of the Data Layer functionality, create a data layer on the pages where you wish to pass information or fire tags
  • Create Tags, Rules and Macros within the Google Tag Manager interface according to the map you just created. Make sure to apply the correct Rules to your Tags to make sure they fire in the right place.
  • Test the changes you’ve made in Google Tag Manager using debug and preview mode.
  • Then push a version of your site live that has removed the hard-coded tags from within the page. At this time, also Publish your changes using the Publishing feature of Google Tag Manager, which pushes the changes live to the site.
For more precise details on these steps, read our developer documents about migration.

Can you add tags to events or buttons?
Definitely! In order to use Google Tag Manager to fire tags on events and buttons, follow these steps (for more detail, read our developer document on event handlers):
  • On your page, proactively add the dataLayer.push({ ‘event’: ‘myEventName’}) to the event handlers for all events and buttons you might want to track.
  • Create a new rule where “event equals myEventName”.
  • Associate this rule with any tag you’d like to fire when the specified event happens.
Can hard-coded tags and tag manager co-exist? Do I have to remove my other tracking tags?
We strongly recommend that you completely migrate all your tags, so you can take advantage of the benefits of managing and updating those tags within Google Tag Manager. However, if a full migration seems too hard, you can use Google Tag Manager in parallel with hard-coded tags. Some of our users use Google Tag Manager to only manage adding new tags.

If you choose to do a partial migration to Google Tag Manager, you need to be very careful to make sure you don’t accidentally start double-counting your tags. If you decided to deploy a tag via Google Tag Manager, make sure that you don’t have a version of the same tag firing on the same page.

Can you build your own custom tag templates? And how do I become a recognized Tag Vendor within Google Tag Manager?
Custom Tag templates within Google Tag Manager allow you to copy/paste any HTML or Image tags directly into Google Tag Manager and fire it based on your predefined rules and macros. To turn it into a template, use the {{macro_name}} syntax to populate the tag code with dynamic values. We will also do a syntax check to ensure that when you copy your 3rd party tag, it will fire as intended.

If you’re interested in having your tag added to the list of predefined templates, apply to become a Tag Vendor within Google Tag Manager by completing this interest form.

How does this work with Google Analytics? How do you do things like track pageview and track event within Google Analytics?
Google Tag Manager is a convenient way to correctly deploy Google Analytics across your site. To use Google Analytics within Google Tag Manager, simply create a Tag with the Google Analytics tag template. You can select the “Track Type” as either a pageview, an event, or a transaction.

Make sure you have some version of the Google Analytics tag firing across all pages on your site. A good way to do this would be to have a basic tag firing on all pages, but blocking on pages where your more customized tags are firing (like the thank you page where you’d be firing a specialized transaction tag type).

Can the Google Tag Manager snippet be placed in <head>? How about in my footer?
The recommended best practice is to have the Google Tag Manager snippet at the top of the <body> to maximize data collection, but some clients may find it easier to implement the Container snippet elsewhere in the in the page, like the footer.

Do not place the Google Tag Manager snippet in <head> (for the IT folks: this is because there is an iframe in the <noscript> case, which can have unpredictable results in some browsers).

No matter where you install the container snippet, you will need to make sure that this snippet of code is on every page of their site. Google Tag Manager will still work if you only deploy it on part of your site, but Google Tag Manager’s rule based system will only work on pages where the snippet is deployed. For more details, read our developer documents.

Does Google Tag Manager replace Doubleclick Floodlight?
No, Google Tag Manager does not replace Floodlight -- they are complementary. Floodlight is a conversion pixel for DoubleClick products (Floodlight tags can now be deployed within Google Tag Manager), and Google Tag Manager is a tag management system or “container tag” for multiple tagging technologies. Floodlight has previously been used by some users as a container tag as well, but moving forward, Google Tag Manager is a way to deploy all tracking technology.

You also have the ability to pass custom floodlight variables through Google Tag Manager into Floodlight, through the Data Layer. For more information, please review the material in the Developers Guide.

We hope this webinar and this blog post will help you as you get started with Google Tag Manager, and we look forward to seeing you at our technical webinar in January. (Registration details coming soon).

Posted:
Cross-posted from the DoubleClick Search Blog

Today, agencies are looking for ways to continue running high-performing search campaigns across different search engines, geographies, formats, and devices. To turn this complexity into opportunity, many look to SEM platforms as a single place to manage, optimize and measure all their campaigns - on many search engines across the world.

Choosing a platform to manage all this isn’t easy. There’s lots of advice and suggestions about how to choose one, (such as this and this).  But we’ve learned that every client has different needs - some only want to manage search ads, some want a real integration with their display and mobile campaigns, some have dedicated teams, some are more budget conscious. Through our formal and informal customer feedback sessions we‘ve taken onboard marketers and agencies’ key questions and requests, and used that to revamp DoubleClick Search version 3.  And through these same sessions over recent years, we see and hear the factors that are important to marketers and agencies in their choices - these are the questions that most commonly come up in RFPs, in our discussions and in our feedback sessions.  

We created a guide with the factors that clients consistently tell us are most important. These guide our investment in DoubleClick Search, and we hope they might be a useful summary for you if you are looking for, or testing out, an SEM platform partner. See the entire guide on the DoubleClick Search blog.

Posted by Ariel Bardin, Product Management Director

Posted:
In September we launched Multi-Channel Funnels with Attribution modeling for DFA, a powerful tool built into DFA which allows you to create and apply custom attribution models within the UI and in real-time. Since then, we’ve received feedback from advertisers who are better able to understand how their marketing efforts are working together to drive conversions. We put together this short video to highlight how you can use attribution modeling to optimize your campaigns today.



So start optimizing your campaigns today - attribution is already available for all the data in your DFA campaigns.

Attribution modeling is just one area where clients will benefit from a single view of the customer via the unified platform, DoubleClick Digital Marketing. To learn more about what you can do with attribution in DFA, reference these articles in the DFA Help Center (sign-in required).

Posted by Bill Kee, Product Manager

Posted:
Cross-posted from the DoubleClick Search blog

Search marketing today is changing faster than ever before, and as a result, marketers are increasingly turning to powerful bid optimization platforms to help them scale their keyword bidding and take advantage of new opportunities. However, with so many tools in the market -- including our own DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite -- search marketers need to carefully evaluate different platforms before investing in one.

We invite you to join us and paid search luminary Kevin Lee, Executive Chairman at Didit, for a ClickZ Academy webinar, Choosing the Right Bid Optimization Platform to Drive Paid Search Results.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

  • How automated bid optimization can help search marketers meet their unique business goals
  • Why smart, fast, and flexible platforms are a must in an increasingly-complex search landscape
  • How to navigate the balance between automation and control to achieve the best results

Register today to attend the webinar. Live Q&A will follow.  

Date: November 19, 2012
Time: 1:00pm ET / 10:00am PT

To follow our bid optimization blog post series on the 7 factors to consider when choosing a bid optimization platform, subscribe to the DoubleClick Search blog.

Posted:
Online holiday shopping is turning into a yearly endeavor for consumers -- and a yearly challenge for marketers. If you're a search marketer, how do you succeed in search during one of the busiest times of the year, to reach the right people with the right message, when it matters?

With the holidays quickly approaching, we want to be right there with you to ensure that yours are stress-free and merry. For seasonal trends, tips, and tricks on how to
win this holiday season with DoubleClick Search solutions that’ll let your search go faster, smarter, and better, visit the DoubleClick Search blog to access our Guide to the Holidays, and sign up for our holiday best practices training on November 14th.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search Team

Posted:

Re-posted from the Google Agency Blog

Looking for fresh inspiration to start off the holiday season? We’ve invited a few of the creatives and developers who have campaigns featured on the Creative Sandbox gallery to join a series of Google+ Hangouts on Air, in conversation with Google product experts. They’ll talk about what they did, how they did it and explain their hangups and breakthroughs. 

To RSVP for the series, visit the Google+ Event.

We love seeing the work our agency partners come up with using digital tools, bringing brands and ideas to life. We hope that the Creative Sandbox Hangouts will fuel your creativity. Sometimes all it takes is an example to inspire the next big idea.

Here’s the detailed schedule:

Monday: Mobile | 2:30pm EST | featuring Beattie McGuinness Bungay | Watch at http://goo.gl/ITC17

Tuesday: YouTube API | 2:30pm EST | featuring Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Stoop LA, and Ogilvy Paris | Watch at http://goo.gl/0OlFr

Wednesday: DoubleClick Rich Media
 | 2:30pm EST | featuring Grow and Spinnaker | Watch at http://goo.gl/xKvKp

Thursday: Google+ API | 2:30pm EST | featuring Resn, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Hook | Watch at http://goo.gl/kdqlW

Friday: Geo API | 2:30pm EST | featuring McCann New York, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Famous Interactive | Watch at http://goo.gl/AwQT6



Posted by Hope Friedland, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Posted:
Just over a month ago, we launched Google Tag Manager, a free tool that makes it easy for marketers to add and update website tagsincluding conversion tracking, site analytics, remarketing and morewith just a few clicks. Since then, we’ve released the product in 35 languages, we’ve added new tagging capabilities for Google Analytics, and we’ve been hard at work building more enhancements.

To help you get the most out of Google Tag Manager, we’ve scheduled a webinar next week with Product Manager Laura Holmes to walk through the tool and go over implementation basics:

Webinar: Getting Started with Google Tag Manager
Date: Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Time: 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT
Register: goo.gl/YTulu

We’ve also been hearing great feedback from our users, including GoPro, the world’s leader in wearable and gear-mountable cameras and digital devices. With the growing popularity of GoPro products and accompanying complexity of their digital marketing activities, GoPro found itself with dozens of tags measuring countless engagement activities across its web properties. It was critical to find a way to implement and maintain marketing tags that would scale with the marketing organization. Analytics Pros, a Google Analytics Certified Partner and Google Tag Manager specialist, led a comprehensive migration to Google Tag Manager -- and GoPro stakeholders were delighted with the results:


“Google Tag Manager centralizes our tags into a single location that gives our marketing and analytics teams the flexibility to make tagging updates within minutes without burdening IT.”
- Lee Topar, Director of Online Marketing, GoPro
Download the full case study.

We hope you’ll join us at the webinar next Tuesday the 13th. If you’re not able to attend, we’ll be posting a recording of the webinar about a week afterwards here on the blog and on YouTube, and you can also read more about Google Tag Manager on the website or the help center.

Posted:
We’ve heard a lot of talk about HTML5 and it’s potential to alter the way ads are developed and trafficked online, but we wanted more details. So we chatted with Wook Chung, Product Manager for DoubleClick Mobile, to hear his thoughts on the changing landscape.  

Q: So what’s the big deal with HTML5? (Why should people care about it?)
A: We’re living in a multi-device era where people use a variety of devices to meet their daily needs. Advertisers want to reach their audience on all surface areas and HTML5/Javascript is the only known language that runs across all modern day devices. With HTML5, a given ad creative can potentially run everywhere.

Furthermore, HTML5 gives advertisers access to native device features such as touch, gyroscope, GPS, and even 3D graphics acceleration. Creatives now have access to many more primary constructs which translates to infinitely more possibilities in what content can be. With HTML5, we have an opportunity to revolutionize digital advertising. Finally, the HTML5 spec is still yet to be finalized, which means it can remain agile in adapting to hardware innovations.  

Q: How does HTML5 specifically improve the possibilities for mobile ad development?
A: HTML5 is the only known language that runs across all major mobile operating systems and browsers. Without it, mobile advertising would be relegated to custom native code rendering governed by ad SDK providers. It would not be scalable and designers would be severely limited in flexing their creative muscles. With HTML5, we can now unleash all sorts of possibilities. Currently, the majority of the mobile ads seen out in the internet are static images. We can change this with HTML5.

Q: How is Google and Doubleclick thinking about HTML5?
A: Google has been a strong supporter of the HTML5 standards alongside other companies and organizations. Through our contribution to the WebKit open-source project and our Chrome browser, we continue to push the boundaries in showcasing what is possible with HTML5. You can check out the latest HTML5 innovations and experiences in our Chrome Experiments projects or HTML5Rocks.com. Another great example is Google Maps on browsers that use WebGL for 3D renderings.  

Just as Google places a high priority on HTML5, we also envision a healthy ad ecosystem based on HTML5 ads. We see a world where a single creative can potentially run on any device, any screen size, and naturally respond to user interactions and device movements. To realize this vision, Google is working with industry partners to establish HTML5 ad standards, educating creative agencies on HTML5, and building products and services that can support these ads, from our DoubleClick platform to our ad networks and SDKs.

If you work on a creative team at an agency, we would love to hear from you to understand how you're currently creating HTML5 ads and how you'd like to be creating them in the future.

Please complete this short survey to let us know how we can better meet your needs. You can enter to win one of two Nexus 7 tablets if you complete the form!*
*Only participants located in the United States, who submit their email addresses, are eligible to win prizes. Winners will be selected on November 30th, 2012 and notified within 2 weeks.


Update 11/16/12: We've decided to push the deadline of the survey back until Dec. 7th, 2012. Winners will be selected on Dec. 7th and will be notified within 2 weeks.
Posted by Becky Chappell, Product Marketing Manager, DoubleClick Rich Media