Enhanced Campaigns Hangouts on Air: Optimizing Mobile Strategy

On April 25th, AdWords Specialists hosted a Hangout on Air as the last installment of the Enhanced Campaigns Hangouts on Air series.

To watch the full 20-minute Hangout on Air, visit the Google Business YouTube channel.


During the Hangout, Wes explains how to adjust bids for mobile devices. He does an account walk through, demonstrating how to adjust bids for the time of day, location and device. For example, if a user is on a mobile device near your store during regular business hours, it may make sense to increase the bid. Wes explains how to calculate the actual bids when using multiple bid adjustments at the same time.

Andy then explains how to create mobile preferred ad texts and mobile preferred ad extensions. He emphasizes the importance of sending users on mobile devices to optimized mobile websites, and briefly touches upon ValueTrack parameters. This blog post further explains how to use ValueTrack parameters to manage URLs by device.

To learn more about how to get started with AdWords, visit our help center, check out the AdWords Community Forum, or call us at 866-2-GOOGLE if you already have an AdWords account.

And remember to tune in to the live stream of our next Hangout on Air at 11 a.m. PDT, Thursday May 9th, when our specialists discuss the ad approvals process in detail.

Posted by the Adwords team.

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Award-winning partners share tips for SMB success

We’re always looking for ways to share helpful tips with our readers, so we asked a few of the recent winners of our 2012 Premier SMB Partner Awards to share some words of wisdom with small businesses for digital success.

1) Love your customers
“There are two main items we focus on to create great customer relationships. The first is frequent customer contact. If you talk to your customers often, you’ll become aware of the little issues before they become big issues. The second is what we call ‘showing the love.’ When a customer knows they’re important to you, the level of trust is much deeper. Try and ‘show the love’ with everything you do.”
—Brenton Rose, Director of Ad Operations & Duncan Scarry, CEO, Haystak Digital Marketing - Winner of Highest Customer Satisfaction Award (North America)

2) Use a mix of tools to meet your unique goals
"Every business is different, and there's no one size fits all for AdWords campaigns. Think about what your customers are looking for and what actions they might want to take, and craft your ads with the right features and extensions to be most relevant."
­ —Kris Van Peteghem, Project Manager, Roularta Media Group - Winner of Highest Customer Satisfaction Award (EMEA)
Learn more about enhancing your ads with different types of extensions.

3) Make your site mobile-friendly
“When you consider the smaller screen sizes of most mobile devices, it’s important to have a mobile-friendly website. If not, visitors viewing your site from a mobile device are likely to have a poor, and perhaps confusing, experience.”
—Louis Gagnon, Chief Product and Marketing Officer, Yodle, Inc. - Winner of Mobile Champion Award (North America)
See how your site looks in mobile and give it a mobile makeover.

4) Make it easy for customers to get in touch
"People on the go are often looking for something local - be it a business in the area, directions, or a phone number. Offer your customers more ways to easily communicate with you, whether that’s through your website, via phone with call extensions, or with location extensions to bring them into your physical location."
—Alessandro Giuliano, Head of Product Management, Omnimedia AG, part of Ringier Digital AG - Winner of Mobile Champion Award (EMEA)
Find out how to set up location extensions.

5) Maximize potential from the get-go
“In order to reach potential customers, SMB’s need to increase their online visibility. Google AdWords campaigns enable businesses to derive tangible value from their online marketing efforts."
—The team at goudengids.be and pagesdor.be - Winner of Largest Increase in Active Advertiser Base Award (EMEA)
 Learn how AdWords Premier SMB Partners can help you maximize your AdWords potential.

The Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner program connects trusted and experienced AdWords partners with small businesses to help them create, manage and optimize their online advertising campaigns. Here’s the full list of winners:

North America:
Best Quality Accounts: Dealer.com
Largest Increase in Active Advertiser Base: Dex One
Mobile Champion: Yodle
Display & YouTube Champion: Dealer.com
Highest Customer Satisfaction: Haystak

EMEA:
Best Quality Accounts: Interinfo
Largest Increase in Active Advertiser Base, Emerging Partner: Truvo Belgium (goudengids.be)
Largest Increase in Active Advertiser Base, Established Partner: Begun
Mobile Champion: Ringier Digital AG
Display Champion: Trudon
YouTube Champion: Agora
Highest customer satisfaction: Roularta
Posted by Todd Rowe, Managing Director of Global Channel Sales

Posted by Todd Rowe, Managing Director of Global Channel Sales

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Improving the look and feel of Google Places for Business

Hundreds of millions of people around the world use Google Search, Maps, Mobile and Google+ to find and discover great local businesses -- either in their hometown or in the places they’re headed. We’ve been able to deliver more comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date information to help these people find what they’re looking for thanks to you, the many business owners who manage your online presence through Google Places for Business.

Today, we’re introducing an upgrade to the look and feel of Google Places for Business that will roll out to business owners over the coming weeks.

Easier to use
The upgraded interface is simpler and more intuitive, so the process of updating your business information is quick and easy. There’s also a widget that helps you understand at a glance how much more you need to do to complete your business profile.

Edits go live faster
When you make changes to your business, your customers want to know about it right away. Most edits made via the upgraded user interface now appear on Google Maps and our suite of other services within 48 hours. As before, we may continue to moderate changes to ensure the highest quality local experience.

Better integrated with Google products
Through this upgraded interface, you will be able to access your local Google+ page to take advantage of social features like sharing photos, videos, or posts. For businesses who also use AdWords Express and Google Offers, managing your ads and promotions is easier than ever. You can check results and make edits directly from your upgraded Places for Business dashboard.

What to do next
If you’re an existing user of Google Places for Business, this new interface is coming soon. You’ll receive an email notification once we’ve upgraded your account, and see the new interface once you sign in as usual. If you haven’t yet verified your business listing, now is the time to do it!

Posted by Qasar Younis, Senior Product Manager

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