Attend an upcoming DoubleClick Bid Manager training webinar

If you're interested in boosting your DoubleClick Bid Manager expertise this fall, be sure to join one of our upcoming webinars. We offer both basic training for new Bid Manager users as well as advanced webinars for seasoned users already familiar with the platform.  If you've recently upgraded to Bid Manager, are new to the system, or are planning to upgrade soon, these webinars are a great place to start.

Take a look at the schedule below and enroll through the Training page in the Bid Manager Help Center  (sign-in required).

Bid Manager Overview for new users - 10/31 and 11/13

This webinar provides an introduction to Bid Manager – including the basic benefits and features of demand-side platforms and how ad exchanges work. It will then walk through the steps to setting up a new campaign in Bid Manager. We'll also cover core Bid Manager functionality and how it works with DFA, as well as how to analyze performance and optimize campaigns.

We also offer online eLearning and Certification.

DoubleClick Bid Manager: Launch your campaign - 10/17

Now that you know the basics, it's time to launch a campaign. During this webinar, attendees will walk through turning a media plan into an actual live campaign in Bid Manager. We'll also discuss different strategies for gaining reach and increasing ROI, as well as setting up remarketing recency.

This webinar is intended for users who have completed Bid Manager Fundamentals training and are ready to set their strategies. If you’re not familiar with Bid Manager, complete the Fundamentals eLearning or attend the Overview for new users webinar first.

DoubleClick Bid Manager Video - 10/22

You can now programmatically buy and report on your video campaigns with Bid Manager. Join this webinar session to take a deep dive on best practices for setting up video campaigns.

This webinar is intended for Bid Manager users who have completed Fundamentals training. If you’re not familiar with Bid Manager, complete the Fundamentals eLearning or attend the Overview for new users webinar first.

DoubleClick Bid Manager Mobile - 10/29

Run your multi-faceted mobile campaigns through Bid Manager. This webinar will walk through the process of setting up your mobile campaign, with descriptions of all available targeting. Additionally, we'll discuss a few best practices and take your live questions.

This webinar is intended for Bid Manager users who have completed Fundamentals training. If you’re not familiar with Bid Manager, complete the Fundamentals eLearning or attend the Overview for new users webinar first.

DoubleClick Bid Manager Reporting - 11/7

Join our webinar on generating reports and reading inline statistics in Bid Manager. We'll cover how these reports can help you optimize prospecting, audience, and remarketing campaigns. If you run reports, review data, or make optimizations, this session is for you.

Pre-recorded webinar: Keyword contextual targeting

This webinar will walk through how keyword contextual targeting works with Bid Manager, and best practices for setting up a keyword targeted line items.

• Watch

More pre-recorded webinars available

We also offer pre-recorded webinars in our Help Center, covering topics like Private deals, Creative approvals, and upgrades. While you’re there, be sure to read about our latest product releases.

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.

Posted by Molly Larrison, DoubleClick Bid Manager Product Trainer

Read More

DoubleClick Rich Media: Lessons from our Customers -- A Hangouts Mini-Series

At DoubleClick, we’re inspired every day by the experiences that our customers create using our platform. So we thought we would host a hangouts mini-series to present some of the great creatives we’ve seen from our customers and walk through the things we’ve learned from these campaigns.

On Tuesday, 10/15 @ 1:30pm ET, Jeff Sundheim, Creative Account Executive for DoubleClick Rich Media, will host a conversation with Daniel Weisinger and Brick Rucker from Unfold Agency to discuss their recent creative for Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell. Daniel and Brick will walk through some of the thoughts underlying their ad unit, what tactics they used to add depth to the experience, and what technologies they are most excited about.

Next Friday, 10/18 @ 1:30pm ET, Dana Summers and Katie Erbs, DoubleClick’s dynamic creative experts, will go behind-the-scenes of some of our customers' recent dynamic campaigns. They’ll uncover key techniques that each of these campaigns used and provide recommendations for how you can build your own dynamic campaigns for success. 

Recap:

“DoubleClick Rich Media: Lessons from our Customers -- Featuring Unfold Agency”

Tuesday, Oct. 15th @ 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET

RSVP here. Please add any questions for the panelists on the Event page. 

“DoubleClick Rich Media: Lessons from our Customers -- Dynamic Creative Techniques”

Friday, Oct. 18th @ 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET

RSVP here. Please add any questions for the panelists on the Event page.

We hope you’ll be able to join us!

Posted by Becky Chappell, Product Marketing, DoubleClick

Read More

Dialing up better measurement: Announcing integration with top call tracking services in DoubleClick Search

Today, we’re happy to announce new integrations that make it even easier for DoubleClick Search customers to track and report on conversions that happen via phone after interactions with search ads. Recent research shows that over half of smartphone users are taking advantage of click-to-call ad features from Google and others. In addition, around 7% of all mobile searches result in a phone call to a business, so understanding the impact of call data is important to analyzing and optimizing campaign ROI.

Ever since DoubleClick Search introduced the Conversions API, advertisers have been able to upload and report on the offline activities and conversions that make sense for their business, and take advantage of those insights in near real-time. Now we’re happy to announce official integrations with many of the major call tracking service providers in the US, EMEA and Australian/SEA markets.

Americas: CallCap, Century Interactive, Infinity Tracking, Marchex, Mongoose Metrics, ResponseTap  

UK/Europe: Infinity Tracking, ResponseTap

Australia/SEA: AVANSER

We’re continuing to evaluate other providers for integration on an ongoing basis.

How advertisers and agencies benefit

Cramer Krasselt, an ad agency based out of Chicago, had historically used a number of tactics to measure offline conversions that resulted from their online campaigns. “We knew a lot of conversions were happening where the primary conversion occurs offline,” mentions Rocky Yost, Senior Analyst at Cramer Krasselt, “but we didn’t have an easy way of connecting it to our online campaigns.”

Yost continues, “Because of call tracking integration into DoubleClick Search technology, we now have one place to get reporting. And because it’s automatically uploaded into DoubleClick Search, conversions from customer calls are now also a part of DoubleClick Search bidding models. This integration has improved ROI by decreasing cost per click, giving us better positioning in search results, and in general, the bid management system is able to make a better choice because it has a more complete picture of completed transactions.”

Moreover, advertisers are able to see these conversions in near real-time, and can use the insights gained in both reporting and automated bid optimization immediately, instead of waiting 24 hours or more. As always, all reporting is aggregated and anonymous, and these conversions are not used to target advertising.

Continuing to invest for the future

We’re currently planning the next extensions of the Conversions API and offline conversion tracking. Stay tuned to the blog and our Google+ page for more.

Read More

Google Web Designer: Thoughts from the Field

Last week, we announced the public beta of Google Web Designer, a pro-grade HTML5 authoring tool that helps you create HTML5 ads with ease. We caught up with two creative professionals who participated in the private beta of Google Web Designer -- Francois Girardot, Creative Director and Co-founder of Biborg, and Marius Veltman, Rich Media Expert at Artis Universalis -- to get their thoughts on the new product.

How would you describe the importance of HTML5 to creative development?

Francois: By 2015 there will be more tablet sales than desktop computer sales. As a result of this shift, advertisers need ads that work across all screens. Flash can’t do that, but HTML5 can. We’re focused on responsive advertising and we believe HTML5 is the key to effective multi-screen ad campaigns.

Marius: Since Flash isn’t supported on mobile devices, HTML5 is filling the gap. HTML5 is great because it allows you to develop quickly and add complexity to your designs with each iteration.

How was your transition from Flash to HTML5? Which HTML5 tools did you use before Google Web Designer?

Francois: For us, the transition from Flash to HTML5 has been gradual over the past two years. Clients want more and more campaigns that run on all devices. 

Marius: We've been working with Flash for about 15 years. The transition from Flash to HTML5 has not been without frustration. 
I've always felt I was missing the essential tools to create fast and efficient workflows. 

What are your thoughts on Google Web Designer?

Marius: The learning curve is very manageable, and even if you only have a basic level of knowledge you can build cool HTML5 creatives in a relatively short time.


 

Francois: The code generated is clean, which makes it easier for designers and developers to work together. GWD will surely become the reference for HTML5 animation.

What impact will Google Web Designer have for creative developers and designers?

Marius: Google Web Designer offers an easy way to create HTML5 content. This enables more people to build multi-screen content in the future.

Francois: Designers typically use After Effect or Flash to provide developers with the animation they want. With Google Web Designer, they will have a tool they can use to experiment with animation and code. 

What feature/functionality of Google Web Designer are you most excited about?

Marius: I’m most excited about the 3D functionality - it offers new ways of animating content in HTML5. The speed with which the GWD development team launches iterations is impressive. Clearly Google is really serious about pushing HTML5 onto the market. And we feel that there is much more to come.

Francois: We’re most excited about the integration of Google Web Designer with other Google tools, like DoubleClick. We know that Google will do everything they can to enable creativity and increase advertising quality, especially for ads on mobile.

**Bonus: Marius was the winner of our Google Web Designer Beta competition with his “Magic Island” HTML5 ad. Check out his ad on the Rich Media Gallery!

Read More

Tutorial Tuesday: Bring your creative to life with Google Web Designer’s animation tools

Last week, we launched our “Tutorial Tuesday” series where we’ll be writing about important aspects of Google Web Designer throughout the month of October. Our first post helped you learn the Google Web Designer Interface, and this week, you’ll learn how to make your creative come to life with motion. 

While static images work fine for highway billboards, digital creative is most effective with animation. Google Web Designer provides two ways for you to animate your creative: Quick Mode and Advanced Mode.

1) Quick Mode is the easy way to get started with animations. In this mode, you build animations scene by scene by adding a new view of the entire page, animating your elements, and then modifying your transition times and easings. Learn more>>

2) Advanced Mode gives you more granular control of your animations. In this mode, you use the Timeline to animate your elements individually and then modify transition times and easings. Since layers are shown in this mode, you can easily change the location of each element within the stack of elements. Learn More>>




Can’t wait until next Tuesday?
In our next Tutorial Tuesday post, we’ll talk about how to create and manipulate 3D content with CSS. If you want to get ahead of the game, you can watch our CSS Panel Demo video or our other videos on YouTube.

Join the conversation
As always, please send us feedback on our user forum or our Google+ page. We’d love to hear what you have to say, so we can continue to improve Google Web Designer.

Posted by Jasmine Rogers, Program Manager, Google Web Designer

Read More

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

Read More

Tutorial Tuesday: Learn the Google Web Designer Interface

Yesterday we launched the public beta of Google Web Designer – a professional-quality design tool that makes it easy to design HTML5 creative, for free.

While we built the tool to be fairly intuitive, we want to make sure you have the resources you need to get started. So beginning today and continuing through the month of October, we’ll be posting “Tutorial Tuesday” blog posts to highlight important aspects of the tool.

This week, we’ll give you a general overview of the tool and show you how to add text and tags to your projects. Over the next few weeks, we’ll post on additional topics such as making your projects more interactive with motion, making them more beautiful with design elements, and transforming your work into rich media ad creative. 

Take a tour of Google Web Designer
When you first download Google Web Designer, you’ll want to get to know the interface. With Google Web Designer, you can: 

• Start designing immediately with familiar menus and panels
• Design the way you like by toggling between Design view and Code view
• Test your work in a number of browsers with the Preview button
• Get your work on the ad networks of your choice by publishing your projects

Take a full walk-through of the Google Web Designer interface in this video. 

Add text

With Google Web Designer, it’s easy to add text to your projects. You can transform text into headings, paragraph text, and links, and make your text stand out with hundreds of free, open source web fonts. Learn more.

Add tags

Google web designer has a Tag menu that helps you add div img, video, or custom HTML elements to your documents. You can change the color and the border radius of your tags in just a few clicks. Learn more.

Can’t wait until next Tuesday?

In our next Tutorial Tuesday post, we’ll talk about how to use Google Web Designer’s Timeline to add motion to your creative. If you can’t wait until next week, you can watch our two Timeline videos here and here, and you can watch all of our videos on the Google Web Designer YouTube Channel. You can also check out our getting started guide for more information. 

Join the conversation

We want to hear what you think of Google Web Designer, so feel free to send us feedback on our user forum or our Google+ page. We’re excited to have you help us shape the future of our new tool.

Posted by Jasmine Rogers, Program Manager, Google Web Designer

Read More