Ironvine Search Marketing

While working with the new Google Analytics Export API and a PHP example, I wanted to be able to output a csv version of the data to a file that could be downloaded.

I found this PHP function that allows output buffering. Still working the bugs out of my data export, but the output code works well.

http://my.opera.com/zomg/blog/2007/10/03/how-to-easily-redirect-php-output-to-a-file

There are a maximum of 50 profiles per Google Analytics Account, and a limit of 25 Analytics Accounts per email address.

Back in March Google announced that there would be a new factor in the Quality Score algorithm, landing page load time. With this, not only does the quality of the page content affect your ranking, the speed of which it is displayed will come into play.Last Thursday (May 8, 2008) Google added a new feature to help facilitate the management of landing page load time and its affect on your keywords.

On the Keyword Analysis page you will be able to find the load time evaluations and from that data take appropriate measures to help increase that performance on your site.

You have a little bit of time to evaluate your page situation and get any changes done before the landing page load time will start affecting your Quality Score. The implementation for the algorithm change is scheduled for mid-June 2008.You can read more about how load time will affect your landing page quality in this AdWords Help Center article.

Technorati Tags: Google, Landing Page, AdWords, Ironvine

Google Closes Acquisition of DoubleClick

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., (March 11, 2008) – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of DoubleClick, a company that offers online ad serving and management technology to advertisers, web publishers and ad agencies.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are thrilled that our acquisition of DoubleClick has closed. With DoubleClick, Google now has the leading display ad platform, which will enable us to rapidly bring to market advances in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies, while improving the relevance of advertising for users.”

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

About DoubleClick, Inc.

DoubleClick is a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world’s top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, mobile, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium. From its position at the nerve center of digital marketing, DoubleClick provides superior insights and insider knowledge to its customers. Learn more at www.doubleclick.com.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements relating to our ability to improve the performance of digital media and the relevance of internet advertising. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ include, among others, risks related to our ability to identify and pursue the technologies necessary to achieve these goals, as well as those risks and uncertainties included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, which is available on our investor relations website at www.investor.google.com. All information provided in this release is as of March 11, 2008, and Google undertakes no duty to update this information.

Media Contact:

Ellen West

212.565.1986

ewest@google.com

Investor Contact:

Maria Shim

650.253.7663

marias@google.com

Technorati Tags: Google, DoubleClick, News, Search, Marketing, Ironvine

Yesterday if you opened AdWords editor you were prompted to download the latest version and upgrade to v.5.0.0.

It has some very nice new features, including “Local Business Ads”, but there have also been a few bugs reported by my team alone.

From the Inside AdWords Crew…

Today, we released version 5.0 of AdWords Editor, our free, downloadable campaign management application. Among other features, version 5.0 includes support for local business ads, an export picker that lets you select specific campaigns and ad groups to save to a CSV file, and the ability to save advanced search settings. You can read our release notes for a complete list of new and updated features.

If you haven’t yet downloaded AdWords Editor, visit our website to get the latest version. If you’re already using AdWords Editor, you’ll be prompted to upgrade automatically.

Important note: To avoid losing unposted changes or comments, export an archive of your account before upgrading. After you’ve completed the upgrade, download your account then import the archive file to get your account up and running.

Version 5.0 is available now for Windows and Mac. For more information about AdWords Editor, visit the AdWords Editor Help Center.

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew

Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, AdWords Editor, Search, Ads, Marketing, Ironvine

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Wednesday, Google holds its analyst day at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. You can listen to it live from Google’s investor relations Web site.

Analysts will have many questions about where Google is headed and hopefully Google will provide some real answers.

Here are a couple of the most important issues that are sure to come up during the presentation.

* Does Google have bigger plans to expand in social networking, including a possible investment in Facebook?

* Will YouTube and online video advertising ever become a major contributor to revenue and profits?

* Is Google really looking to take on Apple (APPL) in the mobile phone business?

* Is Google concerned about recent enhancements made by Yahoo! (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) to their search engines as well as an increased marketing push by IAC’s (IACI) Ask.com?

* How well is Google’s payment service Google Checkout doing compared to eBay’s (EBAY) PayPal?

* What plans does Google have for online ad placement company DoubleClick — assuming that the deal passes regulatory muster in the U.S. and EU?

* And finally, what does Google intend to do with its $13.1 billion in cash?

Of these topics Google may spend the most time talking about DoubleClick and YouTube and how they fit into Google’s strategy of broadening beyond the keyword search advertising business that still makes up an overwhelming majority of Google’s revenue and profits.

Technorati Tags: Google, Analyst, Invest, YouTube, Facebook, DoubleClick, Ebay, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ironvine

This is a good article to keep in mind when working with keywords.

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=19527

Technorati Tags: Search, Paid, Marketing, PPC, SEW, Ironvine

Inside AdWords blog posted another reminder that Q4 holiday shopping is right here with tips on how to be prepared and make the most out of holiday shoppers online.

Their recommendations revolve around the Keyword Tool, ad text testing, and their optimization tips.

You can read the details at http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/09/just-three-more-shopping-months.html

Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, PPC, Holiday Shopping, Paid Search, SEM, Keywords, Ironvine

SES was a pretty good conference. The event hall was pretty well staffed with vendors including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask, iProspect, and many more. There were lots of Search companies, link building companies, and various other web companies.

My conference was highlighted by the Google invite only Agency Lunch and the Google Dance at the Google Campus in Mountain View.

The Google Lunch was a small group of invite only agency people. I sat at a table with the CEO and a few other people from advertising.com. The presentation was basically all about the new Google offerings in addition to search, Print, TV, Radio, etc. Print as well possibly. I’m sure some of our clients already do radio ads and could be pretty easy to migrate over. The nice thing is that Google offers ways to track the performance, like dedicated phone numbers which they offer for free or by using dedicated trackable entry points.

Google Dance 2007 was a huge bash at the Google campus in Mountain Home.
You can see more pics from Google on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/gdance2007/GoogleDance2007WeRockedIt
There were lots of product demos on all the Google applications, Meet the Developers, food, drinks, a huge dance party in the rec hall, green screen karaoke, and my favorite the Candy Bar.

All in all it was a great trip. Met lots of people in the event hall and the sessions had some decent information. Next time I hope to get into some of the other sessions to see what they are about.

Technorati Tags: SES, San Jose, Search Engine Stratagies, Search, Paid Search, Marketing, Advertising, Ironvine, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

The Improved Ad Preview tool is now easier to use!

» We’ve recently updated the Ad Preview tool to include easy drop-down menus to select different locations and languages. This improvement will make performing a test search that much easier.

As a refresher: The Ad Preview tool enables you to view ads and search results as they would appear on a regular Google search results page. With the Ad Preview tool, you can also adjust the location to see locally targeted ads–no matter where you are located. Plus, you won’t accrue extra impressions!

Visit the Ad Preview Tool to give it a try.

Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, Paid Search, PPC, Search, Marketing, Ironvine

Check out some of the new features in development over at Mountain Home.

http://www.google.com/experimental/

Some of the new features include:

Timeline and map views
Keyboard Shortcuts
Left-hand search navigation
Right-hand contextual search navigation

Technorati Tags: Google, Search, Ironvine

Some happy news this morning for those who do any reporting with Google Analytics. Google has released a new version of Analytics that will be rolled out to users. You can see immediately some of the changes right from the dashboard design.

This is the first major update to the Google Analytics program in some time, and the first I believe since the program went public and out of beta.

Technorati Tags: Google, Analytics, Reporting, Search, Marketing, SEO, Ironvine