Join an upcoming DCM or DFA training webinar

With the recent DoubleClick Campaign Manager announcement, now is a great time to learn the about the basics in our DCM Fundamentals webinar.  For those who have already started the move, we also have a webinar focused on helping you prepare for upgrading to DCM.

Take a look at our upcoming DCM and DFA webinars and enroll through the Training page in our Help Center (sign-in required).

DCM Fundamentals - 10/23, 11/20, and 12/11

This webinar is intended for new users to DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM). It will provide an introduction to the fundamentals of DCM (Trafficking) and offer best practices for beginners.

DFA6 to DCM for Existing Users - 10/9, 10/17, 11/6, and 12/3

This webinar will focus on the differences between DFA6 and DCM functionality (i.e. what to watch out for when your account is upgraded). Ideal for clients that have been using DFA and will be upgrading to DCM (DoubleClick Campaign Manager) soon.

Reporting: Report Builder - 10/31 and 12/5

Learn how to run reports in Report Builder, and slice and dice data in the Summary tab (dashboard view). This session is designed for users with a basic knowledge of DFA6 or DCM.

If you’re not familiar with DCM or DFA, attend the Fundamentals webinar session first.

Reporting: Attribution - 10/17, 11/14, and 12/19

In this session, you’ll get a deep dive on the Attribution tab in DFA Reporting. Get a look at uses for Multi-channel funnels, Attribution, and Modeling. This session is also helpful for those upgrading from DFA to DCM to expand knowledge of what the Reporting tool offers.

If you’re not familiar with Report Builder, we suggest attending the Report Builder webinar first.

DFA Fundamentals - 10/16, 10/30, 11/13, 12/4, and 12/18

Learn the basics of trafficking in DFA6. The bulk of the session focuses on ad trafficking, but touches briefly on Floodlight tags and DFA Reporting. DFA Fundamentals is the first step if you’re new to third-party ad serving and DFA.

MediaVisor Fundamentals - 10/15, 11/19, and 12/17

Learn the most common uses of MediaVisor, including how to plan and create campaigns, advertisers, and site placements. You’ll also learn how to send RFPs and IOs, as well as how to traffic placements from MediaVisor to DFA.

Some sessions mention prerequisites where we recommend background knowledge. Please take note of these to ensure you get the most out of each session. Lastly, be aware of any regional time differences before enrolling in any of the live sessions.

Excited about a webinar but running into a scheduling conflict? Be sure to check out pre-recorded webinars in the DCM Help Center as well as the DFA Help Center – you might be able to find a session already recorded and ready to watch.

Still on DFA6? Get trained online with our DFA Fundamentals eLearning (also available in Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, and Swedish!) and live webinar sessions.

Don’t forget to Sign up to receive the latest news, product updates, features, tips, and research information from DoubleClick!

Posted by Jessica Osborne, DFA Product Trainer

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Stay cool this summer with DFA training webinars

Summer... a time for cookouts, pool parties, road trips, and DoubleClick training.  Whether you're new to display advertising or just need a refresher with certain DFA features, you can find a variety of training sessions to help you beat the heat. Here’s a look at our upcoming webinars:

DFA Fundamentals

In this webinar, you’ll learn the basics of trafficking in DFA6. The bulk of the session focuses on ad trafficking, but touches briefly on Floodlight tags and DFA Reporting. DFA Fundamentals is the first step if you’re new to Third-party ad serving and DFA.

Register: North America or Asia/Pacific

We also offer online eLearning and Certfication.

Reporting: Report Builder

In this session, you’ll learn how to run reports in Report Builder, and slice and dice data in the Summary tab (dashboard view). This session is designed for users with a basic knowledge of DFA6.

Register: North America / Europe

If you’re not familiar with DFA6, attend the DFA Fundamentals eLearning or webinar session first.

Reporting: Attribution

This session covers the Attribution tab in DFA Reporting. Get a look at uses for Multi-channel funnels, Attribution, and Modeling. This session is also helpful for those upgrading from DFA to DCM to expand knowledge of what the Reporting tool offers.

Register: North America

If you’re not familiar with Report Builder, attend the Report Builder webinar session first.

MediaVisor Fundamentals

Learn the most common uses of MediaVisor, including how to plan and create campaigns, advertisers, and site placements. You’ll also learn how to send RFPs and IOs, as well as how to traffic placements from MediaVisor to DFA.

Register: North America

Some sessions mention prerequisites where we recommend background knowledge. Be sure to take note of these to make sure you get the most out of each session. And, Be sure to note any regional designations before enrolling in any of the courses.

Visit the DFA Help Center to enroll in our free webinars and eLearning and certification. While you’re there, check out our pre-recorded webinars too.

Our webinars and training options can help you achieve display advertising mastery while staying cool this summer. Be sure to also sign up for the DoubleClick Digest to get the latest DoubleClick news, research, events and product updates.

Posted by Amanda Gangl, DFA Product Trainer

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Attend a DFA Webinar Training this Spring!

Spring brings a lot of great things - birds chirping, flowers blooming, and webinars buzzing!  

We are particularly pleased to introduce two new webinar series that focus on Reporting and Floodlight.  For some sessions background knowledge is recommend. Please note the prerequisites listed for each webinar, as this knowledge will help you get the most out of each session.

When registering, please be sure to note the regional designations before clicking the link to enroll.

DFA Fundamentals

• This session covers the basics of Trafficking in the DFA6 UI. Users new to 3rd Party Ad-Serving and DFA6 are encouraged to attend. The bulk of the session focuses on Trafficking but touches briefly upon Floodlight and Reporting. Great for beginners and anyone that wants a refresher!
• Registration: North America, Asia/Pacific

Introducing our New Reporting Series!

• Reporting: Report Builder
• This session focuses on the new Reporting tool. Understand how to slice and dice data in the Summary tab (dashboard view), run reports in Report Builder.
• Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of DFA6 (available in DFA Fundamentals webinar or eLearning).
• Registration: North America,  Asia/Pacific
• Reporting: Attribution
• This session explores the ‘Attribution’ tab in the new Reporting tool. Get a look at uses for Multi-Channel Funnels, Attribution, and Modeling.
• Prerequisite: Moderate experience with Report Builder or completion of the ‘Report Builder’ webinar session.
• Registration: North America

Introducing Our New Floodlight Series!

• Floodlight: QA & Troubleshooting
• This session will provide the information you need to make sure you’re creating, testing, and fixing your Floodlight tags correctly.
• Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of Floodlight (available in DFA Fundamentals webinar or eLearning).
• Registration: North America
• Floodlight: Custom Variables & Macros
• This session will discuss how the use of Custom Variables and Macros can help you gather a wide variety of data that may be useful for your business. This course also covers the use of Macros to pass information from Floodlight to 3rd party pixels.
• Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of Floodlight (available in DFA Fundamentals webinar or eLearning).
• Registration: North America
• Floodlight & Associated Functionality
• This course will provide you with an overview of Floodlight tags: understand what they are, which types of tags are available and some implementation tips.
• Registration: Asia/Pacific

Visit the DFA Help Center to enroll in any of the upcoming live training sessions or eLearning modules.

Stay tuned for more topics and don’t forget to sign up for the DoubleClick Digest to get the latest scoop on news, research, events and product updates from DoubleClick. Opt-in here!

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Making better decisions: Attribution Modeling comes to DFA

Attribution modeling, even with the Path to Conversion report, can be a daunting task, with the data inputs required and the approaches varying greatly depending on one’s level of experience. Countless hours can be spent manipulating and setting up data before you can even think about gleaning insights on your campaign.

Last week we first introduced the Attribution Modeling Tool, and today we’re pleased to announce its availability to all DFA users. No additional setup is necessary to get started, since the modeling data is pulled from your advertising campaigns running in DFA.

The Attribution Modeling Tool, accessible from within Multi-Channel Funnels, includes six standard models plus the ability to create custom models:

1. Floodlight, the standard DFA model, is based on a last-click wins model which gives 100% of credit to the last click, or to the last impression if no click is present in the path. It’s useful as a baseline for comparison with other models. 
2. Last Interaction gives the last touch point 100% of the credit for the conversion. 
3. First Interaction gives the first touch point 100% of the credit for the conversion. It can help you understand which campaigns create initial awareness for your brand or product. 
4. Linear gives each touch point in the conversion path equal credit for the conversion. An advertiser might use this model if campaigns are designed to maintain contact and awareness with the customer throughout the entire sales cycle. 
5. Time Decay gives most of the credit to touch points that were closest in time to the sale or conversion. It can be useful for campaigns with short sales cycles, such as promotions. 
6. With Position Based, 40% credit is assigned to the first interaction, 20% credit is assigned to the middle interactions, and 40% credit is assigned to the last interaction. It can be used to adjust credit for different parts of the customer journey, such as early interactions that create awareness and late interactions that close sales. 

You can further answer specific questions by creating custom models with rules based on interaction type, position, time, DFA data (site, placement, etc.), and DoubleClick Search data (campaign). This lets you adapt the models to better account for your campaign objectives.

So start exploring different attribution models with the data in your DFA campaigns. You’ll learn how to quickly build, customize, and compare models and derive new insights on the customer journey to conversion from the different touch points of your campaign.

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

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Setting lookback windows in Path to Conversion reports

Have you ever changed your Floodlight lookback window and then waited a few days in order to see how conversion numbers would change? Have you ever misconfigured your lookback windows in the trafficking UI and wished you could regenerate your conversion numbers with the correct lookback windows?

The new Path to Conversion report (P2C) available in DFA Reporting offers greater flexibility around setting and managing lookback windows when you run a report.

Example 1: I’m interested in seeing the impact on conversions if I shorten the lookback window from its original 30-day Floodlight configuration.

Select “Custom” from the new Lookback Window drop-down under Report Properties.

The “From Floodlight” option simply uses the pre-calculated lookback window value that is already applied.

Unlike Floodlight lookback windows, which are based on calendar days, custom lookback windows use a simple 24-hour calculation. A 2-day value for clicks means that the clicks will need to be within 48 hours of the conversion to count. A 0 value will effectively remove clicks or impressions from attribution eligibility.

For this report, I want to allow a 7-day window for clicks and only a 3-day window for impressions.

Once I have changed the lookback window, to understand its effects I can add any of the following dimensions to my query:

Conversion Dimensions

• Floodlight Attribution Type indicates if the conversion is a click-through or a view-through conversion using the Floodlight lookback windows.
• Recalculated Attribution Type tells me if the conversion is a click-through or view-through conversion using the 7- and 3-day lookback windows I configured under Report Properties.

Per Interaction Dimensions

• Similarly, I can compare Floodlight Attributed Interaction to Recalculated Attributed Interaction to see how attribution changed using my new lookback windows.
• Within Floodlight lookback window indicates if the interaction was already in the Floodlight lookback window or if the new lookback window brought the interaction into this conversion path.

Example 2: I am seeing a number of conversion paths with large periods of inactivity for many users. I would like to evaluate the impact on conversions using only more recent activity without changing my original lookback window.

To do this, I can select the “Max gap between interactions” option under Report Properties.

Setting a limit on the number of days will end a conversion path if the distance between two elements in the path is greater than or equal to that number of days. This is good for tidying up longer paths to focus on more recent events.

This is just one simple demonstration of the power of the Path to Conversion report. The new lookback window tools in the Path to Conversion report provide a way to analyze your conversion data with greater flexibility.

Try it today and let us know how it helps you out!

Posted by Jason Gessner, Software Engineer, DFA

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Introducing the Path to Conversion report

Conversion attribution is the practice advertisers use to give appropriate credit to every impression, interaction or click that helped drive a conversion in a campaign. Instead of the typical “last click wins” model, in which 100% credit is given to that last ad that was clicked on before a conversion, attribution modeling shines a light on the entire path the customer took to get there.

Beyond the “last click wins” approach
There are many reasons why online advertisers have relied on this “last click wins” model. There is a lot of data to sift through, and making sense of it can be a overwhelming. Although only 14% of respondents in a recent survey by Google Analytics in partnership with eConsultancy consider “last click” attribution to be “very effective,” it remains common; most likely because marketers haven't yet found or mastered the right attribution tools. But simply giving all the credit to the final click ignores the contribution of the customer’s previous interactions—whether through search, display or rich media —that led to the final purchase.

At DoubleClick, we provide you with the data needed to properly credit the different channels that led to conversions for your campaigns. First came the Exposure to Conversion Report (E2C), a premium report which lets advertisers view data on up to ten ad interactions leading up to a conversion. Then we released Multi-Channel Funnels in DFA to offer all clients an aggregated view of which channels contribute to and result in conversions.

Expanded insights: The Path to Conversion report
Now, we’re pleased to introduce the Path to Conversion Report. This report, available in new DFA Reporting, makes it easier for you to gain insight into your customer’s journey to a purchase.

For a trial period, the new Path to Conversion report is available to any customer who is already receiving the E2C report.

This new report, currently available to any customer who receives the E2C report, provides similar insights but offers E2C customers significant improvement in a few key areas:

• Easier to use: the data, available in new DFA Reporting is much easier to compile and faster to download.
  
• More interactions: the availability of data has greatly expanded. Now you can analyze up to 200 customer interactions (also known as “exposures”) per conversion as compared to a maximum of ten in the E2C report.
  
• Custom Floodlight Variables: you can now include custom floodlight variables in the report in order to determine custom conversion details, e.g. order amounts for e-commerce sites or the number of nights booked for travel sites.
  
• Enhanced DoubleClick Search integration: Available per interaction: Ad level data including keyword, new DS3 labels and Full DoubleClick Search IDs - for easier optimization.
  
• Attribute sales with no clicks: Often you’ll encounter customers who have seen a DoubleClick-served ad from another network, and then went to the advertiser’s site later to buy. Data on these unattributed conversions (aka non-attributed interactions), are now measured in this report.
  
• International support: P2C now supports multi-byte characters in Floodlight Custom Variables and in DoubleClick Search Data (keyword, etc).

We invite existing E2C customers to log in to DFA Reporting and try out the Path to Conversion report during this trial period. We’re excited to see how you can leverage this report to take the next step in your attribution modeling efforts.

Posted by Aaron Nelson, Product Manager

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A digital marketing platform to win the moments that matter

Editor's note (Tuesday, June 5, 2012, 6:15pm PST): We have updated the YouTube link to show a recorded version of the DoubleClick Insight livestream event.

Today, at the DoubleClick Insights conference, we’re unveiling DoubleClick Digital Marketing: the first modern ad platform built for the modern digital world. The improvements we’re announcing today represent the biggest ever overhaul of our DoubleClick ad platform and are the result of a great deal of hard work over the last few years. This fully integrated, unified platform and its components will be rolling out to partners over the coming months.

You can click here to watch a recording of the livestream of the event:

A platform for today
Today’s consumers work, play and share, moving seamlessly between formats and devices. However, for agencies and advertisers, the process of connecting with consumers is anything but seamless. It’s hard to reach the right audience at the right moment with the right message when every channel requires its own system and you’re patching together, and switching, between ad platforms that aren’t in sync. In fact, in a recent survey of 300 clients, marketers and agencies, they told us their team members are spending almost two days a week working across various digital platforms, often on manual workflow tasks. They estimate an integrated digital platform could liberate a third of that time. That’s an extra month every year that each team member can invest in other campaigns and new business.

Based on what we’ve heard from our customers, we challenged ourselves to re-invent ad buying with a unified platform:

• Can we build an ad management platform that’s comprehensive, so that clients can manage all channels in one place, across all formats and devices?
  
• Can we build a seamless platform, so that clients can easily optimize, tailor, measure and compare all elements of their campaigns, using a common language and interface?
  
• Can we ensure that it’s customizable, so that marketers can easily plug in their own technology, data and third-party suppliers?
  
• Can we make ad buying faster, to dramatically speed up data analysis and slash manual campaign management activities?

A platform that works better together DoubleClick Digital Marketing is our answer. The new platform comprises the following components, which will be fully integrated and work together to enable seamless ad campaign management for agencies and advertisers:

• DoubleClick Digital Marketing Manager, our upgraded DoubleClick ad server, used by thousands of marketers and agencies worldwide to manage directly bought ad space.
  
• DoubleClick Bid Manager, our new demand-side platform, rebuilt on our DoubleClick technology, making it faster and more flexible. Many Invite Media customers are currently in the process of being upgraded to the new DSP. Last year, spending on Invite Media grew by about 50%, and we believe these new investments will create even more momentum for the exchange ecosystem.
  
• DoubleClick Search, our cross-engine search management platform that was completely rebuilt last year and is natively integrated into the DoubleClick platform. DoubleClick Search is used by 6 of the largest 10 agencies, and is creating efficiency gains of up to 65%.
  
• DoubleClick Studio, our rich media creative solution, now with Teracent’s dynamic creative technology built in, which powers engaging and intelligent ad units. In 2011, rich media ads accounted for 10% of all display ads, doubling in volume over 12 months.
  
• Finally, Google Analytics, which will enable attribution modelling, conversion reports and site traffic reporting to be incorporated seamlessly into ad campaigns.

We’ve invested significantly in this area, because we believe that such a system would dramatically improve digital marketing—growing the pie for publishers, funding great online content for users, and helping marketers grow their businesses.

What are we making possible? With the DoubleClick Digital Marketing platform, we’re enabling:

• Smarter creative that works with your media buy and that dynamically responds in real-time, with the audience in mind.
  
• More responsive campaigns that can “learn” the channels where consumers interact and quickly respond with the most appropriate creative, message and offer across all screens (for example, using a single set of frequency capping, remarketing and creative optimization signals across the entire campaign, helping to deliver the right ad as users move through the marketing funnel—from awareness to conversion).
  
• Creating greater value for your business and campaigns, enabling a better understanding across channels and formats (e.g., how does rich media perform versus video?); and facilitating real-time, smarter optimization decisions to reduce cost and increase campaign performance (for example, should you reduce bids on your search keywords and exchange buying while increasing your bids to run more video ads?).

A big step forward We’re often asked about the future of digital advertising. We’re passionate about this industry. It’s the fuel that powers the digital world and a powerful engine of growth and employment. Over the last decade, a remarkably successful industry has been built via humble web banners, repurposed pre-roll video ads, desktop computers and a patchwork of ad buying tools. However, for marketers, the combination of re-imagined creative tools, reinvented measurement solutions and re-vamped ad buying platforms can propel digital advertising into a $200 billion industry that funds and supports great content.

In the coming days on this blog, and on the DoubleClick Publishers blog we’ll provide more details of the new buying platform and discuss other announcements from our DoubleClick Insights event, including new solutions for our DFP and Ad Exchange partners.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President, Display Advertising

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Making the Web Work for Brand Marketers

Learning from the past

In the 1950s, brands slowly moved to TV, just as they have started to move online today. In both instances, buying and selling systems improved; audiences and new content quickly moved to the new medium; and the creative possibilities inspired great ad campaigns.

However, a key moment for TV came in the 1950 with dramatic improvements in measurement—like ratings and quantitative market research. Once major brands could see who they were reaching and what impact their campaigns were having, they fully embraced the medium, creating a multi-billion dollar industry...and TV’s golden age began.

Making better decisions with actionable brand metrics

Unlike the early days of TV, digital advertising is already incredibly measurable. The only problem is a very old and well-known one: the standardized metrics today are largely clicks, user interaction rates and conversions.

But as brand advertisers - such as movie studios or consumer goods companies - know, it’s a challenge to measure changes in brand favorability of a movie or whether an online campaign is driving more consumers to the store. And it’s even harder to take quick action on any such insights.

That's why today, at the Ad Age Digital Conference I'll be introducing the Brand Activate Initiative, an ongoing Google effort to address these challenges and re-imagine online measurement for brand marketers. With this effort, we're partnering with the cross-industry Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative. We believe that the industry’s significant investment in brand measurement efforts can substantially grow the online advertising pie, for all.

Is a particular ad in your campaign especially useful at improving brand recall in Illinois? You should be able to immediately increase your coverage throughout the Midwest. Is one ad slightly less effective at driving purchase intent and in-store sales? Tweak the creative, straight away.

The first Brand Activate solutions

We’re working to build truly useful brand metrics into the tools that advertisers already use to manage their campaigns, so they’ll be actionable within seconds, not months.

Here’s a video describing the Brand Activate Initiative:

The first two Brand Activate solutions are rolling out today:

Active View: Advertisers have long looked for insight into whether consumers saw an ad on page 145 of a magazine, or switched the channel during a TV commercial break. It’s similar online, so we’re rolling out a technology, which will be submitted for Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation, that can count “viewed” impressions (as defined by the 3MS’s proposed standard, this is a display ad that is at least 50% viewable on the screen for at least one second).

Called Active View, this will first be available in coming weeks within Google Display Network Reserve. We’ll also be making this metric a universal currency, ultimately offering it within DoubleClick for Advertisers, as well as to our publisher partners. Active View data will be immediately actionable—advertisers will be able to pay only for viewed impressions. Going forward, we’re working on viewed impression standards with the 3MS, and our agency and publisher partners.

Active GRP: GRP, or a gross rating point, is at the heart of offline media measurement. For example, when a fashion brand wants their TV campaign to reach 2 million women with two ads each, they use GRP to measure that. We’re introducing a new version of this for the web: Active GRP. Active GRP has two key features:

• Built-in: Active GRP is built right into the ad serving tools that our publishers and marketers already use every day. Active GRP will enable real-time decision making, allowing advertisers to make adjustments to their campaigns at the speed of the web. We’ve kicked off a pilot program for DoubleClick for Advertisers clients as a first step, and will roll it out to other products, with brands able to specify a range of audience GRP segments.
• Robust methodology: Active GRP is calculated by a statistical model that combines aggregated panel data and anonymous user data (either inferred or user-provided), and will work in conjunction with Active View to measure viewed impressions. This approach overcomes problems of potential panel skewing and reliance on a single data source. This approach also has the advantage of never using personally identifiable information, not sharing user data with third parties, and enabling users, through Google’s Ads Preferences Manager, to opt-out. We will be submitting our methodology for MRC accreditation.

More to come

We look forward to bringing other measurement initiatives into our suite for brand marketers, including a brand impact survey pilot with Vizu, our brand lift measurement product (Campaign Insights) and various cross-media measurement research projects globally.

This is just the beginning of the Brand Activate Initiative, with much more to come for brands and publishers. We think that with brand new metrics comes a new brand moment - one that will encourage brands to invest in the web, help publishers show the value of their digital content, and stimulate digital media’s own golden age.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President, Display Advertising

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Brand measurement research using the DoubleClick for Advertisers platform

We think that better online brand measurement is a hugely important area where technology can play a significant role. We’ll have much more to announce in the coming months; but we wanted to highlight one early experiment. Our research team is working with our clients and Vizu to conduct online brand measurement research for about 70 DFA campaigns.

The IAB’s publication on online ad effectiveness measurement noted that true experimental design (creating consistent, randomly assigned control groups) would be a major step forward in online ad effectiveness research. Our approach does just that. We use DoubleClick ad serving technology to create two randomly selected groups of users - one that sees the campaign’s ads, and another that sees public service ads instead. We maintain this control group for the duration of the campaign, across all sites where DFA serves ads. Vizu’s sampling technology is then used to deliver a brand lift survey to all users so that we may individually measure variables like brand awareness, purchase intent and favorability.

The brand results, presented through DFA, will show how ads performed across the campaign, as well as different sites and ad frequencies. This data can be used with the other campaign metrics in DFA to help marketers to see the impact of the campaign using any metric they want - from impressions to clicks to brand impact to conversions.

Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President of Research, Analytics and Measurement at the IAB commented, “This is very promising and innovative research. After years of settling for less than optimal designs, the industry will finally see if a true experimental design is possible through the use of technology. The results of this research, if successful, could have far reaching implications for the future of brand impact measurement of online advertising campaigns.”

DoubleClick is sponsoring the survey research for all participating clients. We hope this pilot will show that the use of experimental design principles is a great way to address the brand measurement challenge, and to provide real and actionable insights to brand marketers. It’s one of our early stage efforts to re-imagine measurement for online marketers.

To participate in the Brand Lift experiments pilot with DoubleClick and Vizu, you can contact either your DoubleClick or Vizu sales representative for more information and eligibility requirements.

Posted by Jim Dravillas, Google Research team

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New Campaign Summary Report Available in DFA’s ReportCentral

We’re bringing the convenience of downloading campaign reports straight into a Microsoft PowerPoint® presentation to users of ReportCentral in DoubleClick for Advertisers. Now you can easily extract campaign performance data at the site, ad or creative level with the PowerPoint Campaign Summary reports query in ReportCentral. The easy-to-digest charts and graphs will make it that much easier for you to share the results of your online advertising campaigns with your clients, team or manager.

To read more about how to access this new feature, check out this Help Center article (DFA sign-in required).

You should also check out Report Builder as we have recently added a couple of new options to make it even more efficient in running and managing campaign reports. For instance, now you can re-run any previously saved reports and run multiple ones at the same time from the report list page. You can also aggregate data for several activity groups at a time, search for and re-run saved reports as well as run multiple reports at a time in the “Reports” tab in Report Builder. Detailed information on these latest enhancements is available in the Help Center.

Expect more exciting news from the DFA reporting team in the coming months as we’re looking to introduce a host of new features to make campaign reporting that much more robust, insightful and efficient.

Posted by Aaron Nelson, Product Manager

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New features coming to DFA Report Builder in January

When we introduced the new DFA Reporting system back in the fall, we received great feedback from users saying things like, “I love Report Builder. You have no idea how much time you have saved me!” This month we’re adding some new features to Report Builder, some of which will spell even greater time savings in pulling reports.

Reach by frequency
As an advertiser it’s important to have insight into your campaigns reach as well as the number of times you are actually hitting your audience with your message. Now in Report Builder you can get the Reach by Frequency report which shows the number of users you reached by the number of times you've reached them.

Incremental reach
We’ve introduced three new metrics that measure the number of additional users reached by time period (day, week or month). Reach and incremental metrics are broken down by click, impression or total reach.

These new metrics are useful for analyzing the incremental number of people you are reaching for each day of spend. So you can tell within a given time frame whether your spend is going towards reaching new people or if you’re just hitting the same people again and again.

Reordering Floodlight activities and custom rich media events
The drag and drop interface of Report Builder is now also handy when you want to change the order of Floodlight activities and custom rich media events in your reports.

Copy and delete saved reports
Building reports can be time consuming process especially when you have to run them on a frequent basis. So now you can save additional time by being able to copy or delete saved reports in the ‘Reports’ tab.

Export Summary reports
The Summary Reports tab in DFA Reporting gives you at-a-glance details on your campaign performance. We’ve heard from clients that it would be helpful to be able to see the same data in the Report Builder query tool. So this new option lets you export summary reports to Report Builder. Upon export, you’ll see a pre-built page in Report Builder based on your current view of the Summary Reports tab and the great thing is this view is not limited to the number of rows on screen.

To learn more about these latest features available in Report Builder reference this article in the Help Center (DFA sign-in required).

Posted by Aaron Nelson, Product Manager

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Bringing Reach and Media Cost Data into Report Builder

As a follow up to the September launch of Report Builder in DoubleClick for Advertisers, we’re pleased to announce several new features that will make the tool even more useful.

Incorporating Reach and Media Cost
New reach reports in Report Builder show an estimate of how many unique users have interacted with your ads. With the flexibility of Report Builder, you can choose specific advertisers, campaigns, ads, and placements, and gain insight into how many people they reached during a selected timeframe.

Media cost is now an available metric in Report Builder and you can add it to your reports as you would any metric. Media cost represents the cost of all impressions, clicks and activities during the specified date range, based on the schedule and pricing information you input into DFA for each placement.

Saved and Deferred Reports
A major benefit of Report Builder is the ability to create detailed reports with exactly the dimensions and metrics you need. Now you can save report reports, which act as templates so you can quickly re-run or reconfigure frequently-run reports.

You also now have the option to defer report generation, which saves the file so you can come back and download it later. This is especially helpful when running a big report, because you can keep working without having to wait for the report to finish generating.

To learn more about these latest features available in Report Builder reference this article in the Help Center (DFA sign-in required).

Posted by Pamela Eng, Product Marketing Manager

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Introducing new DFA Reporting

We know that as online marketers your goals are to drive greater value from your advertising and to optimize future results based on the learnings from current campaigns. Campaign reporting is central to that effort, and so with this in mind, the DoubleClick for Advertisers product team has been working hard on developing some innovations to the reporting system that will impart greater insight into your role as a marketer.

Today we’re launching the new DFA Reporting system with the introduction of two features -- Report Builder and Multi-Channel Funnels -- that offer the power, flexibility and access to near real-time data required to keep up with today’s always connected, multi-device consumer.

Report Builder: In-Depth, Powerful Campaign Reporting
Report Builder, a new query-based reporting tool, allows you to build campaign reports to the exact specifications that you require. Report Builder is the gateway to reporting for all integrated products from across key DoubleClick products including DoubleClick Search and DoubleClick Rich Media.

Multi-Channel Funnels: At-a-Glance Insights on Conversions
Similar to the feature available in Google Analytics, Multi-Channel Funnels in DFA allow you to chart out greater insight into the paths your customers took from the initial interaction to the final conversion.

A collection of three reports are available to help marketers better understand what channels or mix of channels are helping to drive conversions from campaigns tracked in DFA.

• Attributed Channels outlines which channels are contributing to and resulting in conversions.
  
• Path Length reveals the number of interactions a customer had with your ads before converting.
  
• Time Lag tells you the length of time it took between the first interaction with your campaign and the last before conversion.

We’re getting great feedback from clients currently piloting the tool and will be incorporating their feedback into developing additional funnel reports. Make sure to follow the blog for latest developments on new reporting features available in DFA.

In the next couple of weeks we will be offering a free webinar to cover in greater detail the latest developments in DFA reporting. Look out for an announcement here on the blog or sign up here to be notified by email. We’ll be walking through the reports and common use cases and you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions. We hope you’ll be able to make it!

Aaron Nelson, Product Manager

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New! Rich Media Metrics in DFA Analytics(beta)

The power of DFA Analytics rests in its visually-driven views of campaign performance with easy-to-understand charts and graphs. Drill-down reporting allows you to view performance at multiple levels and across dimensions such as geography, browser, operating system and connection speed, regardless of whether targeting was implemented during campaign setup.

We’re pleased to announce that with this latest release of DFA Analytics, we’re making the tool even more powerful by incorporating standard DoubleClick Rich Media metrics. New metrics include:

• Impressions
  
• Click Rate
  
• Backup Image
  
• Average Display Time
  
• Interaction Rate and Time
  
• Number of Expansions and Expansion Time
  
• Number of Video Plays and Average Video View Time

DFA Analytics updates the data continuously throughout the day and provides you with a quick and easy way to glance at reporting and verify that your recently trafficked campaigns have gone live and are running smoothly. For example, you could monitor potential issues with your campaign by checking on the number of backup images being served up.

Rich Media metrics in DFA Analytics also allow you to drill down your analysis to any level, from account on down to advertisers, campaign, site, ad and creative. Graph results to compare different Rich Media metrics such as the average display time against average video view time over time. Get deeper insight into how your campaign is performing over time by charting results by day, week or month. Go further by benchmarking a campaign’s interaction rate against that of the whole advertiser. Or get a quick pulse on the success of your in-banner video ads by viewing the number of video plays your campaign is receiving.

We’re continuously adding new features to DoubleClick for Advertisers, so expect to see frequent improvements to DFA Analytics in the coming months.

Posted by Aaron Nelson, Product Manager

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